Road fatalities jump 45.8% in Telangana between 2018 and 2022

Telangana: Accidents down, fatalities up. Number of accidents in Telangana dropped from 22,230 in 2018 to 21,619 in 2022, but fatalities rose from 2,064 to 3,010, a 45.8% jump in 5 yrs. 2-wheeler riders had worst of it with 44.5% of fatalities, followed by pedestrians (19.5%). Hyderabad saw 323 fatalities in 2022.

Telangana had fewer accidents but more fatalities in 2022 just like the rest of the country, according to the latest report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Over the past five years, the number of accidents has declined from 4,70,403 to 4,61,312 but the fatalities have gone up from 1,57,593 in 2018 to 1,68,491 in 2022.  

Similarly, Telangana saw a dip in the number of accidents from 22,230 in 2018 to 21,619 in 2022. However, 3,010 persons lost their lives in 2022, up from 2,064 in 2018, a whopping jump of 45.8% in the five-year period. Telangana’s percentage share of road fatalities has increased from 3.7% to 4.9% nationally. The State has maintained 8th rank in terms of number of accidents. However, the State ranked 10th for fatality rate in 2022; it was 8th in 2020 and 9thin 2021. While the number of accidents has come down, number of fatalities have gone up from 6,603 in 2018 to 7,559 in 2022. A sharp 14.47% increase in five years. Even during the COVID-19 lockdown year of 2020, there was no decline in fatalities with the State recording 6,882 deaths on the national highways. 

“The States such as Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana with highest share of accidents and fatalities in 2022 registered accident severity rate lower than all India average,” says the report. In 2022, under the category of Traffic Rule Violations, overspeeding is a major killer, accounting for 71.2% of the persons killed followed by driving on the wrong side (5.4 %). The report says 1.9% of fatalities were due to use of mobile phone during driving. 

Two-wheeler riders had the worst of it with total fatalities touching 44.5% during 2022 followed by the pedestrian road-users with 19.5% of persons killed in road accidents. 

Hyderabad too saw a rise in fatalities on the roads with 323 persons dying on the roads in 2022 — up from 297 in 2021. Hyderabad was among the top 10 cities in terms of road accidents in the 10-million plus cities category.

“Moreover, the possible fault in road design may also be the reason of traffic rule violation, which opens the scope for road engineering measures to address problems which are prima facie, considered to be human error,” notes the report which is tabulated from the data furnished by all the States.