Traffic mishaps top cause of accidental deaths in Assam; 4,072 lives lost in 2023: MHA

Guwahati, Oct 7: Traffic accidents constitute the biggest reason for fatalities among all categories of ‘accidental deaths’ in Assam.

There were 4,072 deaths from traffic accidents, including road accidents, railway accidents, and railway crossing accidents, in the State in 2023, according to the latest official data released by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

Assam reported a total of 5,348 accidental deaths, including 37 accidental deaths due to ‘forces of nature’ and 5,311 on account of ‘other causes’ or unnatural causes, during the year under review.

Fatalities due to accidents in Assam increased by 5.8 per cent in 2023, as against 2022 when there were 5,057 such deaths in the State.

Assam’s share was 1.2 per cent of the total accidental deaths nationwide in 2023, the latest year for which the Central government has released data. There were 4,44,104 accidental deaths that year across India.

The number of accidental deaths in the State due to causes attributed to forces of nature decreased by 39.3 per cent on an annual basis in 2023 to only 37 from 61 in the previous year.

However, accidental deaths due to other causes or unnatural factors went up by 6.3 per cent during the year under review to 5,311, compared to 4,996 in 2022.

Of the total victims of accidental deaths in Assam, 285 were in the age group of below 14 years, 392 were between 14 years and above to below 18 years of age, 1,594 were in the age group of 18 years and above to below 30 years, 1,816 were in the age group of 30 years and above to below 45 years, 957 were in the age group of 45 years and above to below 60 years, and 304 were in the age group of 60 years and above.

Of the total deaths in Assam, 4,337 victims were males and 1,011 were females.

With regard to accidental deaths attributed to forces of nature, lightning killed 22 persons in Assam in 2023. In addition, 12 deaths were on account of floods, two due to landslides, and one due to heat stroke.

In the other causes or unnatural segment, traffic accidents were responsible for the maximum number of deaths (4,072). The other reasons for fatalities were collapse of structure (2), drowning (688), electrocution (83), accidental explosion (1), falls (35), factory and machine accidents (8), accidental fire (21), firearm (1), sudden deaths including heart attack (186), deaths of women during pregnancy (1), deaths due to consumption of illicit and spurious liquor (4), ‘killed by animals’ (74), poisoning (74), drug overdose (1), ‘other reasons’ (42), and ‘causes not known’ (18).