Roshan Toshniwal

The first week of January, Chennai had a campaign for road safety week. Traffic policemen handed over pamphlets containing information for safe driving to the motorist, ushering pedestrians to safely cross traffic junctions and educating children in schools about road safety. According to a recent article in The Hindu, the number of accidents in the city have stayed the same, but the number has sharply increased in the suburbs. If both the suburban and city fatalities are counted, the number of deaths from traffic accidents in Chennai in 2010 increases to 1,415. According to the reporter, this is the largest number of deaths in 10 years, nearly triple what it was in 2000.

We at Transparent Chennai had filed an RTI (Right to Information Act) petition to get the record of accidents and their locations in the last five years (2005-2009). From the data we have available, Jawaharlal Nehru Road (100 feet road), Anna Salai, EVR Salai (Poonamalee High Road) and the East Coast Road have the maximum number of accidents.

On the 100 feet road – Thirumangalam, Koyembedu, Vadapalani and the Kathipara junctions are the biggest hotspots for accidents. On EVR Salai, Nelson Manickan Road, the Ega theatre, and the Vaishnav College junction are the hotspots for accidents. On Anna Salai, Teynampet Signal, Nandanam signal and the Walajah Road junction are the hot spots. According to the data, from the recorded 5,182 accidents there were 1427 accidents in which pedestrians were involved which is about 27.5% . Between every three accidents one accident involves a pedestrian.

According to a report compiled by the WHO (World Health Organisation), road safety has become the tenth leading cause of death in the world, and is expected to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030. The report states that “each year nearly 1.3 million people die as a result of a road traffic collision—more than 3,000 deaths each day—and more than half of these people are not travelling in a car. Twenty to fifty million more people sustain non-fatal injuries from a collision, and these injuries are an important cause of disability worldwide.”  ((WHO), 2009) More importantly, the report says that 90% of deaths related to traffic accidents occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have less than half of the world’s registered automobiles.

Within India, too, the data shows that accidents are concentrated in certain states. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka together account for 38% of the country’s accidents. (Research WinG, 2008)

Chennai’s fatality rate puts it second on the list of metropolitan cities that experience the most number of road accidents, a comparison of official figures reveals. New Delhi, a much bigger city, recorded 1,978 traffic fatalities in 2010. Below is a comparative analysis of various cities based on 2008 data. The Tamil Nadu government wants to make changes to this situation – at least on paper. The road safety policy in the state aims to achieve a 20% reduction in fatalities and injuries from road accidents by 2013. (http://www.tn.gov.in/sta/) However, such reductions will require focused action from the government on traffic safety, of the sort we have not yet seen.

Accident profile of selected cities in 2008:

S.No Name
of the
City		 Population (Projected) Total Number of Accident Severity No.per 1,00,000 people
Accidents Fatal Accidents Persons killed Persons Injured Total Accidents Persons killed Persons Injured
1 Ahmedabad 52,88,962 2519 244 263 2494 10.4 47 4.9 46.5
2 Bangalore 66,98,651 7773 838 865 6180 11.1 114.4 12.7 91
3 Chennai 72,16,068 6386 612 629 4971 9.8 87.2 8.6 67.9
4 Delhi 15926245 8435 2015 2093 7343 24.8 52.2 13 45.5
5 Hyderabad 6601340 3342 506 518 3205 15.5 49.9 7.7 47.9
6 Jaipur 2872666 2098 422 452 1894 21.5 72 15.5 65
7 Kanpur 3140883 1340 512 584 1247 43.6 42.1 18.3 39.1
8 Kolkatta 14454844 2812 411 421 2124 15 19.2 2.9 14.5
9 Lucknow 2604459 1308 485 518 847 39.6 49.5 19.6 32.1
10 Mumbai 18771964 29781 589 622 6453 2.1 156.4 3.3 33.9
11 Pune 4617904 2270 458 477 1890 21 48.5 10.2 40.3
12 Surat 3825267 1486 239 246 1120 16.6 38.3 6.3 28.9
Total 9,20,19,253 69,550 7,331 7,688 39,768 19 65 10 46
All India 1,14,47,34,000 4,84,704 1,06,591 1,19,860 5,23,193 24.7 42.3 10.5 45.7
Accident Severity: Number of Accidents/100

Source: Road Accidents in India (2008), Transport Research Wing, Ministry of Road Transport and Highway (GOI).

These numbers may not be accurate as several accidents are underreported, not analysed in a systematic way, not categorised under road traffic injuries and sometimes. Apart from this there are discrepancies in data provided by the media although three sources police transport and health sector keeps a record of the road traffic injuries.

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(WHO), W. H. (2009). Global Status report on Road Safety: Time for Action. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO press.
http://www.tn.gov.in/sta/. (n.d.). Retrieved January 5, 2011, from Tamil Nadu State Transport Department : http://www.tn.gov.in/policynotes/pdf/home_transport.pdf
Research WinG, M. o. (2008). Road Accident in India . New Delhi: Government of India.
Srivatsan, A. (2010, January 9). Fatal Accidents have tripled in the last ten Years. The Hindu , p. 3.

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