A total of 4725 people died in road accidents inPunjab in 2018, which translates to 13 deaths daily, says a report by PunjabPolice. A six per cent (6%) increase was witnessed in the overall number ofaccidents in 2018 against the declining trend in 2017.Over-speeding is theleading cause of deaths in Punjab. In the 2018, a total of 2540 people died inroad accidents due to over speeding followed by 85 due to drunk-drive.

Nearly 20.3% of these accidents took place between 6:00 PMand 9:00 PM while 74% of total road fatalities occurred on National and StateHighways. Accidental death rate on National Highway in Punjab is 0.64 perkilometer/year and on State Highway is 1.65 per kilometer/year.

The number of fatalities per million population of Punjab(Health burden due to traffic) was 155, against the national average of 111.Three districts of Punjab - Rupnagar, Fatehgarh Sahib and SAS Nagar (Mohali) -ranked on the top with the rate of fatal road accidents almost double than thestate’s average.Out of 22 districts, 11 reported a decrease in the roadfatalities. Barnala district was the worse hit, its ranking increasing from18th to 5th position.

A sharp increase in the road accident fatalities waswitnessed in the month of January, May, August and September as compared to theprevious year 2017.A total of 519 (11%) people died due to road accidents inthree Police Commissionerate jurisdictions, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Amritsar.

As per the socio-economic cost analysis, road accidents resultedin an estimated loss of Rs 4757 crores in 2018 to the state.

Age-wise, 75% of the people involved in various fatal roadaccidents between the age group of 18 to 45. Fifty-eight per cent of the roadaccidents occurred in rural areas of Punjab.