Road accidents claimed almost three times more lives than Covid-19 virus in Jharkhand in 2020 despite several months of lockdown causing a drop in traffic movement in cities as well as highways, figures compiled by Government agencies reveal.

The latest report from the Road Safety Authority states that as many as 3,044 people died in road accidents in Jharkhand from January 2020 to December 2020. As per figures compiled by the NHM, Covid-19 virus claimed as many as 1,025 lives – around one-third of the number of road accident fatalities – in the state until December 31.

In 2020, as many as 4,377 road accidents occurred in the State, highlights data with the Road Safety Authority. While 3,044 people died in these accidents, as many as 3,303 people sustained injuries, the data further reveals. At least 39 per cent of the accidents involved two wheelers, 18 per cent involved four wheelers and 16 per cent involved heavy vehicles.

While Covid-19 caused the highest number of deaths in East Singhbhum, Khunti reported the highest number of road accident fatalities in 2020. Ranchi was the second worst-affected in terms of fatalities caused in road accidents and also the second worst-hit in terms of Covid casualties.

The Covid mortality rate in Jharkhand on Saturday was 0.90 per cent against the national average of 1.40 per cent. The state has reported 62 more Covid fatalities in 2021, taking the total count of Covid deaths in Jharkhand to 1,087, reveals NHM data.

As per data compiled by the Road Safety Authority, at least 92 per cent of the road accidents in Jharkhand occurred due to over-speeding, 2 per cent occurred due to drunken driving, 4 per cent due to driving on the wrong side while 1 per cent accidents occurred on traffic signals.

The Government has taken several initiatives recently to put a check on road accidents and save lives of people who sustain injuries in such mishaps. The state Cabinet last month launched a Good Samaritan Policy, which aims at rewarding life savers in cases of road accidents and allows them to take accident survivors to hospital without having to disclose their own identity to the hospital authorities or the police.

“We are regularly working on new measures to reduce road accidents and fatalities. New policies are also being framed to support families of accident victims through compensation,” said Disaster Management Minister Banna Gupta.

Besides, the Hemant Soren-led Government is also planning to set up trauma centres in all the 24 districts. At present, there is only one level 1 trauma centre at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi, one level 3 trauma centre in Hazaribag, Garhwa and East Singhbhum. And three more level 3 trauma centres are being constructed at Ghatshila, Koderma and Lohardaga.