India recorded around 600 road crashes during the first 40 days of the ongoing nationwide lock down, with 30% of the victims being migrants returning home, a study by SaveLIFE foundation has revealed.
SaveLIFE Foundation is an independent, non-profit non-governmental organization working on road safety in India.
A deeper dive into the statistics reveals 57 percent of the deaths were of those who were driving, and 30 percent were of migrants trying to make their way back home. With interstate travel prohibited during the lockdown, scores of stranded migrant workers were forced to either make the journey back home on foot or find someone willing to drive them home.
As per data compiled by the SaveLIFE for the period between 24th March to 3rd May, the country recorded more than 600 road crashes over the course of the two phases of the nation-wide lockdown to battled Covid-19.
While there has been a dip in the absolute number of road crash fatalities during lockdown due to suspension of public transport and general mobility, the rate of deaths in road crashes has remained unchanged.
During the last five weeks, around 140 lives have been lost due to road crashes across the country, with over 100 deaths recorded in across nine states alone, which include Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Assam, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. Almost 57 percent of the deaths were of people driving during the lockdown, with the most common causal factor across these crashes was speeding.