ACCIDENTAL DEATHS IN INDIA
- Total 3,57,021 accidental deaths in the country during the year 2009.
- A total of 6,47,904 cases of ‘Un-Natural Accidents’ caused 3,34,766 deaths and rendered
- 4,96,190 people injured during 2009.
- Male Female Victim Ratio — 77:23.
- 4.3% increase in Accidental Deaths was reported over the previous year.
- 7.2% decrease in deaths by causes attributable to nature.
- 5.2% increase in deaths by un-natural causes.
- Maharashtra accounting for 9.3% of country’s population has reported almost one sixth (17.5%) of accidental deaths due to unnatural causes. Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Naduaccounting for 6.1% and 5.7% respectively of the country’s population have reported 9.8% and 8.6% respectively of such deaths.
- Males out-numbered females in all kinds of accidental casualties due to unnatural causes at the National level except ‘Fire Accidents’ (where 57.5% of those killed were females as compared to 42.5% males).
- The major un-natural causes of Accidental Deaths were (i) Road Accidents (37.9%), (ii) Railway Accidents and Rail-Road Accidents (7.8%), (iii) Poisoning (8.0%), (iv) Drowning (7.7%), (v) Sudden Deaths (7.4%) and (vi) Fire Accidents (7.0%).
- A total of 4,51,283 ‘Traffic Accidents’ were reported during the year comprising 4,21,628 ‘Road Accidents’, 2,080 ‘Rail-Road Accidents’ and 27,575 ‘Other Railway Accidents’. It is observed that the rate of deaths per thousand vehicles has decreased from 1.5 in 2005 to 1.4 in 2009.
- Deaths in ‘Road Accidents’ in the country have increased by 7.3% during 2009 compared to 2008.
- 20.7% victims of Road Accidents were occupants of ’Two Wheelers’.
- Rate of Accidental Deaths per thousand vehicles was highest in Arunachal Pradesh at 5.7 followed by Sikkim at 4.0.
- The month-wise distribution of ‘Road Accidents’ has shown maximum number of accidents during May (38,928) and June (36,234) and least in the month of July (32,897).
- Maximum ‘Road Accidents’ (66,835) were reported during 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.
- Maximum ‘Rail-Road Accidents’ occurred during the months of June (197) and January(187).
- The maximum number of ‘Other Railway Accidents’ were reported during the months of June (2,553), August (2,495) and September (2,494).
- Tamil Nadu has reported maximum number (60,794) of Road accidents accounting for 14.4% of such accidents in the country. Uttar Pradesh has reported 1,262 cases (60.7%) of Rail-Road accidents and Maharashtra has reported 8,226 cases (29.8%) of other Railway accidents.
- The share of accidental deaths due to causes attributable to Nature has decreased from 7.0% in 2008 to 6.2% in 2009.
- No deaths due to causes attributable to Nature have been reported from A & N Islands, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry.
- 9.5% victims of accidental deaths attributable to nature were due to Lightning.
- Only 0.3% victims of accidental deaths attributable to nature were due to Epidemic.
- Children’s population (up to 14 years age) as per census 2001 was 30.4% of the total population; accidental deaths of children accounted for 6.4% of total such deaths.
- Most of the victims of accidents were aged between 15 to 44 years. This group of people has accounted for nearly two-third (60.7%) of all persons killed in accidents in the country during the year.
- Puducherry has reported highest rate of accidental deaths, reporting 88.1 deaths per lakh population as compared to National average of 30.5.
- 74.3% (208 out of 280) deaths attributable to nature in Chhattisgarh were due to Lightning and 78.1% (50 out of 64) deaths due to un-natural causes in Nagaland were due to Road Accidents alone.
- Lakshadweep has reported a major increase of 166.7% (3 deaths in 2008 to 8 deaths in 2009) followed by Sikkim (116 deaths in 2008 to 222 deaths in 2009 i.e. an increase of 91.4%) while Nagaland has shown a decline of 68.3% (230 in 2008 to 73 in 2009) during 2009.
- The lowest accidental death rate was reported from Nagaland (3.3).
- ‘Accidental Death’ rate was highest in Pune (90.0) among cities.
- Bhopal city has reported 324.2% increase in accidental deaths (from 248 in 2008 to 1,052 in 2009).
- Delhi city among 35 mega cities has reported the highest number of deaths by causes attributable to Nature (47.1%) followed by Hyderabad (15.0%).
- All natural accidental deaths in Lucknow and Surat were due to ‘Cold and Exposure’.
- In Lucknow and Agra 94.6% and 80.6% respectively of total un-natural accidental deaths were due to ‘Road Accidents’ alone.
- Delhi city accounted for 25.1% deaths of bicycle riders, 18.8% deaths of pedestrians, 16.6% deaths of two-wheeler riders and 9.2% deaths of three-wheeler riders in 35 mega cities.
- Kolkata, the second largest city in terms of population (12.3% of the population of all mega cities) among 35 cities after Mumbai (15.2%), reported accidental death rate of 6.3 as compared to 52.3 reported by Mumbai.
Source: Accidental Deaths and Suicides Death in India 2009 Report by NCRB