Tamil Nadu brings down traffic mishaps but Chennai remains accident capital of India

Chennai has been recording the maximum number of accidents in the country every year since 2013. 

According to the National Crime Record Bureau’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2020, a total of 47,829 traffic accidents were reported in 53 cities. Chennai accounted for 9.2 per cent or 4,389 out of the total accidents. Delhi and Bengaluru recorded the second and the third-highest number of accidents. 

However, a large number of fatal road accidents were reported in Delhi city with 1,151 fatalities followed by Chennai with 872 fatalities, accounting for 10.1 per cent and 7.6 per cent of total deaths due to road accidents in the megacities respectively in 2020. 

Unlike Chennai recording the maximum number of road accidents every year, Tamil Nadu has performed better among the states in the country to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities. 

Sumana Narayanan, senior researcher, Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) said the large vehicular population in Chennai could be a reason for the city witnessing more accidents while other districts were able to reduce the accidents. 

An expert on road safety at IIT-M said one of the main reasons for the city witnessing the highest number of road accidents was the lack of focus and initiatives to improve road safety. “Most of the focus and funding is to improve the highways but there was no city-specific work undertaken,” he said. He added that segregating two-wheeler and bus traffic on city roads would help reduce road accidents involving motorcycles and fatalities and also improve public transport.