Bhubaneswar: Road accidents claimed 15 lives every day in Odisha between January 1 and March 6, according to information shared by Transport Minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena in the Assembly on Thursday.
In a written reply to a question of BJD MLA Ananta Narayan Jena, the Minister said that 1,025 people died and 1,594 were injured in 1,616 road accidents during the period. A total of 447 accidents on National Highways claimed 270 lives and left 469 people injured. On State Highways, 246 crashes resulted in 150 fatalities and 259 injuries.
Jena noted that the majority of accidents, 910 in total, occurred on roads elsewhere across the state. These resulted in 594 fatalities and 856 injuries. The expressways in the state also witnessed 13 accidents, which claimed 11 lives and left 10 people injured.
The Transport Minister further informed that road accidents claimed the highest number of lives on Sundays (276 deaths), followed by Thursdays (264), Saturdays (255), Mondays (242), Fridays (236), Wednesdays (232), and Tuesdays (209).
On the other hand, 24 people, on average, were injured in road accidents every day in the state.
Incidentally, 14 people died in a series of road accidents across Odisha within a span of 24 hours earlier this month. While a man and his son died when their motorcycle crashed into the rear of a truck near Tentuli on National Highway–9 in Keonjhar district, one person died and four others were critically injured after a speeding car rammed into an auto-rickshaw at NISER Square in Jatni on March 9. Similarly, four people died in Bargarh district, three in Sambalpur, two in Sundargarh and one person in Balangir district.