From 18,347 to 18,074, road crash deaths marginally down in Tamil Nadu

CHENNAI: The State has seen a slight reduction in road accident fatalities, with 18,074 deaths in 2024 from 18,347 deaths in 2023.

In the policy note of the Home (Motor Vehicles Acts - Administration) tabled in the Assembly, Transport Minister SS Sivasankar said the State has witnessed 67,183 road accidents in 2024 compared to 67,213 accidents in 2023.

The number of fatal accidents has come down to 17,282 in 2024 from 17,526 in 2023, while the fatalities have reduced by 1.49 from 18,347 in 2023 to 18,074 in 2024.

"Due to the various initiatives undertaken by the government, fatal accidents and fatalities have seen a reduction compared with the previous year (2023). Also, the fatalities per 10,000 vehicles have reduced from 5.20 in 2023 to 4.87 in 2024. It was 5.34 in 2022," the minister said.

Commissionerate of Transport and Road Safety has taken several initiatives to minimise road accidents in coordination with the other stakeholder departments. Tamil Nadu Special Task Force - Road Safety has conducted field-level surveys at the police station level and identified 6,160 road accident hotspots across the State. Of them, short-term engineering measures to rectify 3,165 selected hotspots have been completed as of March 31, 2025, and work is in progress at 172 locations.

The minister said the department has allocated Rs 65 crore for the road safety fund to carry out various measures.