JK’s death toll highest in road accidents in India

992 out of 1561 who died in 2013 were from the state

Jammu and Kashmir recorded the highest percentage of unnatural deaths occurring due to road accidents in 2013, the latest report of National Crime Records Bureau has revealed.
According to the report Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2013, “63.5 percent (992 out of 1,561) deaths due to un-natural causes in Jammu & Kashmir were due to road accidents alone.”
Nagaland occupied the second position where 52.2 percent of all unnatural deaths were caused by road accidents. The All India percentage remains at 36.4 percents.
The report revealed that there have been 6455 cases (almost 18 accidents per day) of road accidents in 2013 which caused the death of 992 persons and injured 8594 persons.
Males comprise overwhelming majority of the affected persons in these accidents. Among those killed, 819 were males and 173 females. Among the injured 6490 were males and 1654 females.
There have been 58 deaths in railway related accidents too during this period in the state which when combined with road accidents takes the final toll to 1050.
According to the report, the total Registered Motor Vehicles as on 31.03.2012 in J&K was 917000. The rate of Accidental Deaths per 1000 vehicles in Jammu and Kashmir is 1.1 percents as against the All India average of 0.9 percents.
Among the type of vehicles, two wheelers were deadliest as they claimed 155 lives during the 2013.
In addition to dismal scenario of road accidents, the report has some positive news for Jammu and Kashmir too. The state witnessed a decline of 27.1 percents in incidents of suicides in 2013 as compared to 2012. There were 414 deaths due to suicides in 2012 and the number came down to 302 deaths in 2013.
According to the report, Jammu and Kashmir has the suicide rate (Number of Suicides per One Lakh population) of 2.5 and Srinagar has the lowest rate at 0.6 among 53 cities in India. The all India average for suicides stands at 11.0.
Among 302 deaths due to suicides in 2013, 168 were males and 134 females.
While revealing the details of the causes of suicides, the report said that 35 (16 male and 19 female) took their lives due to family problems, four including three woman went for suicide due to cancellation of their marriages, 14 died due to drug addiction/abuse related suicide, 13 students died after they took the extreme step following their failure in exams, six including three females died due to failed love affairs. In a solitary tragic case, a woman took her life after she was raped. Poverty also caused 16 persons to take their lives.
According to experts, the sustained campaign by doctors, civil society and religious personalities against suicides in Kashmir is showing results. With the introduction of suicide prevention helpline and increased access to counsellors, for now the trend of suicides seems to be moving downwards in the state. The decline of violent incidents have also contributed to decrease in the number of patients with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which otherwise also lead to suicides.