Vijayawada: As many as 8,210 people died in Andhra Pradesh in 30,045 road accidents — 7.52 percent of the country’s total — placing AP third on the list of states with the highest accident rates in 2017. One person gets killed every 3.5 minutes in road accidents in the country. This year’s death rate could be higher than that of 2016. There were 24,880 road mishaps in 2016 and 9,541 deaths, accounting for 9.2 percent of the country’s total in the time period, as per statistics provided by National Highways Authorities of India (NHAI).

Transport Department officials who analysed the accidents in the state have found that hours between 2am and 5am are the most dangerous, accounting for 60 percent of the total accidents. Forty percent of the total mishaps in the state involved speeding and 20 percent were caused due to drunken driving.

Negligent driving accounted for 18 percent, driving without rest led to 12 percent of the total figure and only five percent of the accidents were due to technical failures.

As many as 11 National Highways criss cross Andhra Pradesh along a length of total 3,535km. There is a proposal on the anvil to build more national highways and increase the total length of the highways in the state. The state has 14,572 state highways and thousands of kilometers of roads under the Panchayat Raj Department.

Reasons for Road Accidents: