New Delhi, Oct 14: Contrary to popular perception, Indian roads witnessed more accidents on bright sunny days as compared to rainy or foggy days, in 2017, according to government data.
A massive 3.4 lakh road crashes of the total 4.7 lakh accidents last year occurred on sunny clear days, as per the report on accidents in 2017 by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Accidents under adverse weather conditions such as heavy rain, fog and hail/sleet accounted for only 16 per cent of total road accidents last year.
"Adverse weather conditions such as heavy rain, thick fog and hail storms make driving riskier as visibility reduces and road surface gets slippery. The data of road accidents for 2017, however, shows that almost 3/4th of the accidents took place under sunny/clear weather," the report said.
Of the 4.70 lakh road accidents last year, 1.47 lakh people lost their lives, it said.
The data showed that bright clear days witnessed 73.3 per cent (3.40 lakh) of India's total road crashes in 2017 in which 1.02 lakh persons (69.6 per cent of the persons killed during the year) lost their lives.
Contrary to popular perception, rainy days saw just 9.5 per cent of India's road crashes (44,010) in which 13,142 (8.9 per cent) people were killed.
Foggy and misty days witnessed 26,982 accidents in which 11,090 persons (7.5 per cent) died.
Hail and sleet claimed 1,523 lives last year in 3,078 accidents (0.7 per cent).
As per the report, more than 70 per cent of fatal road crashes in 2017 involved adults in the age group of 18-45.
The report said National Highways accounted for 30.4 per cent of total road accidents and 36 per cent of deaths in 2017.
Accidents on state highways and other roads constitute 25 per cent and 44.6 per cent, respectively. In the case of fatalities, state highways and other roads accounted for 26.9 per cent and 37.1 per cent, respectively.
The report said for the second consecutive year, the number of road accidents declined in 2017.
Similarly, the number of persons injured has been on the decline since 2015. In percentage terms, the number of accidents in 2017 has been lower by 3.3 per cent and injuries by 4.8 per cent over 2016.
It said there has also been a decline in the number of fatal accidents, i.e, accident involving at least one death.
A total of 1.34 lakh fatal accidents were reported in 2017, which is 0.9 per cent lower than the 2016 figure of 1.36 lakh.
Two-wheelers accounted for the highest share (33.9) per cent in total accidents and fatalities (29.8 per cent) in 2017.
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