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This story is from July 28, 2012

Booze, speed major killers on roads, claimed 70,000 lives last year

Drunk driving and speeding continue to be the major cause for road accidents and fatalities claiming around 70,000 lives last year.
Booze, speed major killers on roads, claimed 70,000 lives last year
NEW DELHI: Drunk driving and speeding continue to be the major cause for road accidents and fatalities, claiming around 70,000 lives last year.
Speeding claimed 59,923 lives last year in comparison to 56,203 in 2010, whereas driving under influence of alcohol took 10,553 lives in 2011. Maharashtra was on top of the heap for maximum number of fatalities due to speeding.
While, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat reported more fatal accidents last year in comparison to 2010. In Gujarat, there were 500 more deaths due to speeding in 2011 against 4,898 in 2010.
“The cases of speeding leading to fatal accidents are on the rise in Gujarat. This could be due to significant improvement of almost all the roads across the state. Senior engineers from the state had also raised this issue seeking immediate need for measures to slowdown traffic,” said a senior ministry official.
In case of accidents caused due to intake of alcohol/drugs, UP topped the list, registering a four-fold spurt in fatalities in comparison to 2010. At least 4,635 died in the country’s largest state and 4,706 accidents were caused due to drunk driving.
UP also overtook many southern states in number of total road fatalities — 21,512 lives were lost in 2011 against 15,175 in 2010. Barring Andhra, Karnataka, Kerala and Bihar, almost all other states registered more fatalities, according to the road accident data released by the transport research wing of highways ministry.
The report, which for the first time came out with an analysis of accidents classified according to educational qualification, shows that 35% of all accidents across the country were caused by drivers who are matriculate and above, while 19% accidents were caused by those who have studied upto class VIII.
Now, class VIII is the minimum qualification required to obtain a driving licence. “Government had revised the minimum educational qualification for drivers of all categories of vehicles so that they should be able to read the material on traffic norms and basics of driving while undergoing training, ” said SP Singh of Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training, an advocacy group.
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