SC directs road transport ministry to publish ‘Road Accidents in India of 2023’ by August

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court has directed the road transport and highways ministry to publish the annual report of “Road Accidents in India of 2023” by Aug and said such reports should be made public within six month after the end of every calendar year so that these can be “useful”.

Interestingly, the National Crime Records Bureau, which comes under the home ministry, has also not yet published the Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report of 2023, even one and a half years after the end of that calendar year.

The SC direction to the road transport ministry for publishing the report came after the govt informed a bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan that the “process of publication of the report is going on”. While granting time till Aug, the court said, “We also direct MoRTH to ensure that such annual reports are published within a period of six months from expiry of the calendar year. Only if such reports are published with promptness, the same can be useful.”

Road safety experts and activists have raised questions on the delay in publication of the report which is crucial for deciding on interventions. They have also urged the govt to make some data collected through the “Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD)”, which details cause of crashes with exact location, public so that different entities can take corrective steps. “These data should be made public rather than giving them to a couple of entities for their advantage, if the target is to make road safety a mass movement,” said one of them.

Earlier this year, the home ministry had informed Rajya Sabha that “data validation for the 2023 report (NCRB) is in the final stage”.