Lucknow, Jan 29 (IANS): More than 23,000 lives were lost in road mishaps in Uttar Pradesh in 2023.

According to the data available with the UP transport department, 31098 persons were injured in 44,534 road mishaps that took place last year.

The state witnessed an alarming average of approximately three individuals losing their lives and four sustaining injuries every single hour.

While the increase in the number of deaths over the previous year is marginally less, the absolute figures surged by over 1,050 fatalities.

P. Satyarthi, additional transport commissioner (road safety), said, “Fatalities are slightly less in comparison to 2022 when the increase in the number of deaths over 2021 was 6.2 per cent, but in 2023, the increase is only 4.7 per cent. But we feel there is a lot to do to save the lives of people, and we are consistently working in that direction.”

Lucknow district emerged as a hotspot for accidents by reporting 1,460 accidents, the highest in the state in 2023.

Kanpur stood out with the highest number of deaths at 638, while the highest number of people were injured in Bareilly district.

The highest number of deaths after Kanpur were reported from Bulandshahr (607) and Prayagraj (582) districts, while in terms of cases of road accidents, Kanpur (1,442), Prayagraj (1,297) followed Lucknow.

The highest number of people, after Bareilly (1,091), were reported injured in Mathura (1,015) and Kanpur (985).

Further dissection of the data shows that 56 of the 75 districts in the state recorded an increase in the number of road accidents, and 47 in fatalities.

The top three districts registering an increase in the number of deaths over the year 2022 are Baghpat (33.1 per cent), Pratapgarh (30 per cent), and Shahjahanpur (29.5 per cent).

Lucknow, Kanpur, Prayagraj and Agra are among the districts where the number of fatalities is marginally lower compared to 2022.

Barring Lucknow, these districts show a declining trend regarding the number of road mishaps too.

In Lucknow, the number of road accidents rose from 1,349 in 2022 to 1,460 in 2023, an increase of 8.2 per cent.

It may be recalled that UP leads all other states in the country by reporting the highest number of deaths in road accidents despite reporting a lower number of mishaps, though the national data for 2023 is not revealed yet.