Potholes, speed breakers claimed 11,000 lives last year in India, says study

Indian roads are increasingly becoming unsafe and deadly as over 11,000 people were killed by potholes and speed breakers last year alone, a new study revealed. [caption id="attachment_2377758" align="alignleft" width="380"] Representational image. AFP[/caption]According to a Times Of India article, the government recorded deaths caused by potholes, speed breakers and humps on roads and found that about 11,400 people died with the Uttar Pradesh with witnessing the highest number of casualties."The detailed age profile of road accident victims for calendar year 2014 reveals that the age group of 15-34 years accounted for 53.8% of the total road accident fatalities, followed by the age group of 35-64 years accounting for a share of (35.7%)," the report says.Almost 12 percent of the fatalities took place in 50 cities with population over a million each. National capital Delhi leads with 1,671 deaths and Chennai close behind at 1,118 in this category, the study found.In 2014, the number of road accidents also rose with the figure jumping from 4.86 lakh in 2013 to 4.89 lakh. Not only that but fatalities have also gone up by 1.5 percent.Thirteen states of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana account for about 83.2 percent of the deaths.Sadly in India, a person was killed in a road accident every four minutes - 141,000 in 2014. Despite this, less than a third of the 2.6 million cars sold each year have airbags in this cost-conscious market, reports Reuters.