New Delhi, April 6. India has secured the infamy as the country with the highest number of deaths in road accidents in the world. Minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari who disclosed this worrying fact in Rajya Sabha today said, the information is based on the World Road Statistics 2018 (WRS 2018) compiled by International Roads Federation, Geneva.
The minister added that according to WRS 2018, India is placed third among different countries in the world in the number of road accidents occurred and also placed third in the number of persons injured in road accidents. The percentage of fatalities involving road users between the age of 18 and 45-years stood at 69.80 percent in 2020.
Aid to accident victims
In reply to another question the minister said, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has envisaged a cashless treatment facility on all four arms of Golden Quadrilateral stretch to provide hospitalization insurance cover to the immediate road accident victims (including drivers/passengers/ pedestrians/cyclists) on the identified National Highway stretches between Delhi-Mumbai/ Mumbai-Chennai/ Chennai-Kolkata/ Kolkata-Agra & Agra-Delhi Corridor of Golden Quadrilateral (NH) on cashless basis for treatment of bodily injury caused by and arising out of road accident only.
This is to take care of the immediate needs of the hospitalization of the victims for the first 48 hours from the time of hospitalization or providing necessary treatment up to a cost of Rs. 30,000/, whichever occurs earlier, starting from the time of the ambulance reaching the accident site, as recorded in the control room.
