Deaths due to use of mobile phones and wrong side driving is on the rise on the NH: Study

An IIT research says rise in traffic deaths are due to risky behaviours like wrong-side driving and use of mobile phones while driving.

New Delhi: Use of mobile phones while driving on National Highways (NH) is four times more fatal than jumping red lights, researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi said here on Tuesday, noting that “high acceptance of risky behaviour” is a key reason behind a large number of road fatalities in India.

While over 75 per cent of road traffic fatalities are caused by over-speeding, the IIT team has shown a rise in traffic deaths due to risky behaviours like wrong-side driving and use of mobile phones while driving – a common scene nowadays.

“Though laws are comprehensive in India, weak enforcement and high acceptance of risky behaviours lead to high road fatalities, with speeding as a major cause,” the IIT team said in a study presented at Safety 2024, a global conference on injury prevention and safety promotion.

The researchers at Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre at the IIT, Delhi used government data on traffic accidents and fatality on the national highways for their analysis.

The data shows over 56,000 such deaths in 2021 and the number rose to 61,038 a year later.

Over 40,000 of these deaths are due to over-speeding, which even globally is the principal culprit. But there has been a 21% rise in death due to risky behaviour like mobile use and driving on the wrong side of the road.

“Inconsistent enforcement of the laws leads to high accident rates and cultural shifts are needed,” the IIT team said.

Mobile use caused 1,040 deaths in 2021 and the numbers rose to 1,132 in 2022 as against 222 and 271 deaths respectively for red light violation. Wrong side driving, on the other hand, caused 2,823 and 3,544 deaths in these two years.

The NH figures are a fraction of road traffic deaths as fatalities happen on state highways and other roads too.

A national strategy document to prevent unintentional injury, prepared by the Union Health Ministry, shows Tamil Nadu, Ladakh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka are the top five states in terms of road traffic deaths per lakh population. “This indicates a need for targeted interventions in these regions,” notes the document, released on Tuesday.

The National Highways, which have a share of only 2.1% of the country's total road length, account for the maximum number of road fatalities and are responsible for 45 lives per 100 Km in 2022. The corresponding figure for state highways is 23.

“Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, and two or three-wheelers constitute 66% of all reported road traffic deaths in the WHO South East Asia Region,” Saima Wazed, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia said at the conference on Monday.

“Our roads and road networks need to be designed prioritizing those most at risk: children and adolescents, people with disabilities, pedestrians, and other vulnerable groups,” she noted, adding that the WHO South East Asia region represents 28% of the global burden.