Uttar Pradesh leads in road fatalities caused by fog, report reveals

Uttar Pradesh saw the most fatalities in road accidents caused by fog, as per a recent report. In 2021, 3782 individuals died in such incidents in Uttar Pradesh, while the states of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh had the next highest numbers of deaths at 1800 and 1233 respectively. It is worth noting that there were no reported road accidents caused by fog in the union territories of Goa, Andaman-Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep.

According to the "Road Accidents in India" report released by the Ministry of Road Transport, the cities with the highest number of road accident fatalities among the cities with population over a million, all of the top six cities are from the state of Uttar Pradesh. Among these, Kanpur reported the most deaths with 173, Agra had 108 deaths, Prayagraj had 97 deaths, Ghaziabad had 91 deaths, Lucknow had 67 deaths, and Varanasi had 56 deaths.

The city of Patna in Bihar reported a comparable number of road accident deaths at 56, while Delhi recorded only 8 deaths. According to a Ministry official, the majority of these fatalities occur during the winter months and are usually more severe during these months. Therefore, the official emphasized the need for creating more awareness among commuters to take more precautions. The official also pointed out the need for finding solutions to warn or alert drivers on stretches of road that typically have high concentrations of fog, as the government continues to expand road networks and build new highways.

On Tuesday, six foreigners were among the people injured in a crash on the Yamuna Expressway, when their vehicle struck a container due to reduced visibility caused by heavy fog.