Maximum road mishaps took place between 3 a.m. & 6 p.m. in 2015: Report

Amid the general notion that road accidents mostly take place late at night or in the wee hours, in 2015 the maximum number of accidents occurred between 3 a.m. to 6 p.m., a report has said.

A total 1,46,133 people lost their lives in 5,01,423 road mishaps last year. Of these, 87,819 accidents occurred between 3 a.m. and 6 p.m., comprising 17.5% of the total accidents, as per the 'Road Accidents in India - 2015' report of the Road Transport and Highways Ministry released recently.

"The main reason for most accidents taking place between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. is that people drive their vehicles carelessly and recklessly due to thin vehicular traffic during these hours," transport expert Praful Joshi told PTI on Sunday.

"Owing to less traffic on roads, the people drive their vehicles on high speed and overtake in a wrong manner leading to accidents," he opined.

He also said in the last few years, a trend has been seen that after finishing their work, the office-goers drive vehicles on high speed in a hurry to reach home fast.

Because of this reason also, there has been a rise in the number of accidents between 5 a.m. and 6 p.m., he said.

The report further mentions that a huge number of road accidents also take place between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. During this time, 86,836 road mishaps happened last year which is 17.32% of the total accidents, it said.

The report also said that 51,425 accidents took place between 9 p.m. and midnight, whereas 27,954 mishaps occurred between midnight and 3 a.m. last year, the report added.

Besides, 30,291 accidents occurred between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., 55,518 between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m., 81,964 between 9 a.m. and 12 noon, and 79,616 mishaps took place between 12 noon to 3 p.m. last year, the report informed.