Road accidents claimed 171 in 2013
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, January 10 2014 : Manipur witnessed the maximum number of fatal road accidents last year as compared to the last six years.

Altogether 171 people were killed in road accidents in 2013 while 1291 people escaped with injuries.

According to statistics obtained from CID (Crime Branch), 2008 recorded 573 cases of road accidents.

Corresponding figures for the following years were 578 in 2008, 602 in 2010, 692 in 2011, 771 in 2012 and 736 in 2013 .

As against the 736 cases of road accidents recorded in 2013, these road accidents claimed 171 people.

At the national level, five lakh cases of road accidents were recorded across the country in 2013 and they claimed 1.42 lakh lives.

In another word, road accidents take place every minute and one dies every fourth minute due to road accidents.

This is written in the book 'Sign Language' published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India.

The book attributed 78 per cent of the road accidents to errors on the part of drivers.

A picture of a car ramming into a house

Of the total number of road accidents that occurred in Manipur in 2013, 412 cases happened on National Highways and they claimed 104 lives apart from injuring 719 people.

State highways witnessed 185 cases of road accidents during the same and they claimed 31 lives and injured 320 people.

Moreover, 139 road accidents happened on IVRs claiming 36 lives and injuring 252 people.

Some of the common reasons for this high rate of road accidents are pathetic road conditions, absence of functioning street lamps, driving in intoxicated state, non-compliance with traffic rules, indiscriminate issuance of driving licences, etc.

According to the statistics obtained from CID (Crime Branch), it was the two-wheelers which accounted for the maximum number of road accidents.

Of the total number of road accidents recorded in 2013, 157 cases were related to two-wheelers, 139 to trucks, 47 to buses, 52 to mini-buses, 134 to cars/taxis, jeeps, 80 to three-wheelers and 36 to heavy vehicles.

The year also recorded 91 cases where the cause of accident went unknown.

Some experts suggested proper training of drivers, qualitative improvement of roads and creating awareness about road safety rules in order to reduce the number of road accidents.