[TusharK]

According to a report published by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, ‘overspeeding’ was the main cause of road accidents in 2022.



4,61,312 road accidents were reported during the calendar year 2022, an 11.9% increase over the previous year. The fatalities went up by 9.4% to 1,68,491 deaths.

As per the report, 71.2% of the total deaths and 72.8% of injuries related to road accidents were caused by overspeeding. Overspeeding-related incidents increased by 12.8% compared to the previous. Deaths and injuries also went up by 11.8% and 15.2%, respectively.

Driving on the wrong side of the road was the second highest cause of road accidents in 2022. Drunken driving and use of mobile phones while driving accounted for 7.4% of the total accidents and 8.3% of deaths.

The number of people killed who were not wearing helmets was 50,029. Of these, 71.3% were drivers and 28.7% were passengers. 1,01,891 people who got injured were not wearing helmets and 42,303 people were not using seat belts.

Source: ET Auto

Link to Team-BHP news

[Raghu M]

No matter which country and stats we look at, it's always the no. 1 reason. Normal speeds are safe, allow the driver to react and take away the surprise element. Overspeeding is always dangerous, there is no debate about it.

[sarathlal]

Key stats from the report;










Full report can be viewed at Ministry of Road Transport and Highways website:

https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/f...022_30_Oct.pdf

[vamsi.vadrevu]

I think Indian statistics also have to add a few more causes like "No road", "Accident while trying to avoid potholes", "Accidents due to no proper signage" etc. It will also hold the government responsible for some of these accidents.

[Amrit@wheels]

I wish they also provided an 'accident due to potholes and poor quality of roads' as well. I have seen bad-quality roads kill people even when no one was overspeeding/wrong-side driving/DUI.

[ToThePoint]

Every time I read newspaper and there is some accident news, I see one universal reason cited by police "vehicle was over speeding and driver lost control"!

Is any forensic study ever conducted to understand genuine reason behind accident ?

Is there any study into scientific design of roads/pavements/dividers/flyovers etc untill hundreds of people lose their life and there is uproar on social media and the solution is other than the jugaad rumblers/speed breakers?

[DicKy]

🥱 Yawn.

We know how our cops are overzealous in using 'speeding, rash driving, lost control' in their reports. This is just another continuation of that.

Overspeeding may have contributed, but am sure more than half of those 'overspeeding' accidents happen because of idiots breaking other rules (wrong side driving, jumping redlights, turning without indicators) or unscientific infrastructure.

I am not advocating for high speeds and am more than satisfied with the speed limits in my place, which were recently changed to more reasonable ones. https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-...-2023-a-2.html. But to continue blaming just overspeeding for most accidents is just like the harebrained 15/10 year old car ban in NCR. Did it do anything for pollution? Are there other factors for the increasing pollution? Sshhh.... Just ban old cars. Problem solved.

[BleueNinja]

I am all in for driving within the limits but believe me when I say the 3 times when I had very close calls on highway I was doing 60-70 km/hr.

These are the pain points I feel that are most common on highways:

1. People jumping dividers.
2. Two wheelers and three wheelers operating in an unsafe manner.
3. Cattles crossing the road being herded right in the middle or overtaking lane.
4. Potholes and poor road Infrastructure.
5. Overloaded trucks without proper lights or safety equipment hogging all the lanes.
6. Last but not the least cops stopping cars to line their pockets in an unsafe manner.

Unsafe driving practices is unsaid and an obvious point at this point.

I don't think majority of cars travelling over highways are capable enough to drive in breakneck speeds. It's often a combination of above reasons that end up causing an accidents.

[Small Bot]

Of course the police would say Overspeeding. It's the easiest reason and one that completely absolves any governmental agency including themselves from any blame.

In 2021, I was involved in an accident where I was going at around 40 kmph and a scooter blindsided me. The police report submitted to the court read: Overspeeding and reckless driving. A pity I didn't have a dashcam, or I'd have contested it.

I would hazard a guess and say that maybe a solid 30-40% of these overspeeding incidents was actually lazy/lackadaisical reporting by the traffic police, and the causal reason could have been something else.

It is also a fact that people speed beyond what might considered safe in a particular stretch of road, let alone the speed limit. But I don't think the overspeeding numbers as half as high as portrayed here.

[NomadSK]

Personally, why I don’t trust such reports;

I had a severe accident in the hills, luckily everyone came out unscathed (story for some other time), there was negative or no camber and no crash barrier at the curve. Initially I tried to challenge the system. However, the system forced me to accept that it was "speeding and negligent driving" on my part, easy way to bypass the system with a mere apology and everyone else's responsibility comes to an end with that, otherwise the case will linger on for ages. So, the data which is generated in the first place is already corrupted. Therefore, in simple words, garbage-in, garbage-out.

As far as my memory goes, a car which was flipped over from the flyover in Hyderabad due to the "wrong camber" at the curve was attributed to overspending.

Seems this is the easiest way to absolve responsibilities of the system, just point the finger at the driver and make him the scapegoat. Hence, I'm not surprised with the outcome of this superficial/shallow report.

[uchiltej]

This is a statistic based report and won't pave the way for a safer tomorrow on most indicators. Do expect a lot more speed camera's to be installed while the RTO's happily print and issue DL's to every incompetent driver.
This will continue as long as RTO's behave like DL printing centre's and not training centre's.
Does this report even accommodate the accidents caused due to the glare of High beams or LED based low beams on the newer 2/4 wheeler vehicle's?

[RMN]

I wonder how do you determine if speeding was the sole factor? If one was over speeding by 8kmph and a jaywalker causes the crash, what is the actual cause for the crash? Same thing with a pothole or a poorly placed divider.

[Mortis]

Like everyone else I'm also very sceptical of this report and the easy excuse of "overspeeding".

Speeding related accidents do happen but they need to address the deficiencies in infrastructure, driver/rider/pedestrian education and enforcement of rules.

As they say, speed doesn't kill but coming to a stop unexpectedly while spending does. There are more external reasons for a speeding car to crash than just the driver driving past his limit.

[raptor_diwan]

One of the major contributing factors to accidents, I would say, is driving on the wrong side of the road. Many individuals attempt to conserve fuel by making U-turns just 300 meters away or by traveling in the opposite direction on a one-way road, even on highways. Sudden right-to-left turns also add to the risk, ultimately resulting in high-speed accidents in report.

Regardless of the reasons behind these actions, it's disheartening to witness such a significant loss of lives, which continues to increase every year. I hope that the government takes necessary steps to enhance infrastructure and reduce accidents, rather than treating the issue as a mere task of generating reports.

[pepega]

Only ~12% of road accident deaths in India happen to car passengers. Two-wheelers notch in at ~45%, nearly four times the car driving number.

That means you decrease your chances of dying 4 times by getting into a car. Indian roads are deadly, and I wish car manufacturers made affordable cheap cars that could help transition more of our two-wheeler driving population to cars.

Maybe there should be a Bharat NCAP for two wheelers? We focus so much on car safety, perhaps we should take into consideration two-wheeler safety as well.