43 people die every day in road mishaps in Tamil Nadu

Chennai: As many as 400 people are killed on an average daily in India according to road accident statistics of 2015 released by the Central government. As many as 1.46 lakh people died last year in road mishaps nationally.

While on an average 17 people die every hour in India, the death rate is about two every hour on Tamil Nadu's deadly roads. As many as 43 people die every day in road mishaps in the state, which also retained the dubious honour of having been host to the most number of accidents in all the states in the country.  The total number of people killed in 2015 in TN was 15,642, up from 15,176 in 2014.

Releasing the accident data, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said in New Delhi that there was an urgent need to improve road infrastructure as the numbers showed that road accidents constitute one of the single biggest causes of deaths in India. He stressed the need for engineering solutions at the design stage, safety standards for automobiles and proper trauma care.  “Accidents are killing more people in India than terrorism or natural disasters and yet we never talk about them,” Mr Gadkari noted.

Tamil Nadu topped in total number of road accidents in 2015 with 69,059 mishaps, but it was Uttar Pradesh that topped in deaths due road accidents with 17,666 fatalities last year.

The total number of road accidents all over the country during 2015 was 5,01,423 which was 2.5 per cent more than the number recorded in 2014.

In Tamil Nadu, Chennai had the highest number of fatalities with 886 people losing their lives, followed by Coimbatore with 238 and Trichy where 156 people died in road accidents.