PRANJAL BHUYAN
GUWAHATI, Jan 16 - Traffic accidents have emerged as the biggest reason for fatalities among all kinds of ‘accidental deaths’ in Assam. There were 3,291 deaths from traffic accidents, including road accidents, railway crossing accidents and railway accidents, in Assam during 2018, as per latest data.
There were altogether 5,256 accidental deaths in Assam, including 225 accidental deaths due to ‘forces of nature’ and 5,031 on account of ‘other causes’ or unnatural causes, during the year under review.
2018 is the latest year for which the Central government data has been released. The state’s share in the total number of accidental deaths nationwide in 2018 was 1.3 per cent. Across India, there were over 4.11 lakh accidental deaths that year.
The number of accidental deaths in the state due to causes attributed to forces of nature jumped over two-fold on an annual basis in 2018 to 225 from only 99 in the previous year.
Similarly, the total number of accidental deaths due to other causes or unnatural factors also increased by 7.2 per cent during the year under review to 5,031 compared to 4,691 in 2017.
Of the total victims of accidental deaths in Assam during 2018, 242 were in the age group of below 14 years, 657 were between 14 to below 18 years, 1,684 were in the age group of 18 to below 30 years, 1,446 were of 30 to below 45 years, 954 were of 45 to below 60 years, and 273 were of 60 years and above.
Of the total deaths, 4,342 were males, 912 were females, and two were transgenders. Among accidental deaths attributed to forces of nature, floods took the lives of 15 persons in Assam during 2018, while three deaths were due to landslide, 36 due to lightning, and 171 were on account of other reasons related to forces of nature.
In the other causes or unnatural category, traffic accidents were responsible for the highest number of deaths (3,291). Among other causes were collapse of structure (9), drowning (545), electrocution (95), accidental explosion (2), falls (51), accidental fire (38), firearm (1), sudden deaths (116), deaths due to consumption of illicit and spurious liquor (2), killed by animals (77), poisoning (115), other reasons (410) and causes not known (279).
Source: The Assam Tribune, Guwahati, Friday, January 17, 2020