8,068 dead, 14,200 hurt in road accidents in 6 months

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government’s goal of reducing road accident fatalities looks unattainable for yet another year with 1,231 more people dying in road accidents in the first half of this year and 3,170 more suffering injuries as compared to the same period last year. Data from the state transport department shows that 31,458 road accidents occurred in Maharashtra killing 8,068 people, while 14,200 were injured between January to June 2022, as against 14,420 road accidents in which 6,837 people died and 11,030 injured in the same period in 2021.

The surge in road accidents in the first six months of this year is 118.15%, while road fatalities and injuries are up by 18% and 28.73%, respectively. As compared to the first six months of the pre-pandemic year 2019, the state witnessed about 76% more road crashes and 14.13% more fatalities till June this year while the number of injured rose by 9%. In 17,864 road crashes, 7,069 people died and 15,617 were injured between January and June 2019, as per the data. Of the 31,458 road accidents, 15,132 occurred in Mumbai in the first six months of 2022. Even though the number of accidents surged by 14,008, the resultant fatalities and injuries dipped by 46 and 90, respectively, as compared to the same period (January-June) last year. After Mumbai, the districts of Yawatmal (247), Ahmednagar (160), and Chandrapur (155) witnessed a maximum rise in the number of road accidents.

As far as fatalities are concerned, Buldhana (95) and Ahmednagar (84) districts have seen the highest rise. On the injuries front, Nagpur rural (306), Pune rural (294) and Solapur rural (279) top the chart for the first six months of this year as compared to the same period of the previous year.Maharashtra has a vehicle population of more than 3.5 crore and a road network of more than 17,725km of national highways, 29,029km of state highways and 63,886km of other roads. - —PTI