More than 4 lakh ‘Accidental Deaths’ reported in 2016 while deaths due to ‘Natural Causes’ decrease
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
December 17, 2019
The total number of accidental deaths in India was 4.18 lakh in 2016, slightly more than the 4.13 lakh reported in 2015. More than 8600 of these deaths were due to natural causes which is a 10-year low. Number of traffic accidents and number of deaths due to these accidents have both increased in 2016.
An accidental death is a deathcaused due to an unplanned event. This either could be a result of a naturaldisaster or due to an occurrence of deliberate or negligent human conduct. The NationalCrime Records Bureau (NCRB) publishes
a report annually– ‘Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India’ (ADSI),which provides data on accidental deaths and suicides.
In this story, we analyse thetrends and details relating to accidental deaths as per the latest report i.e. ADSI-2016 report.
The rate of
Accidental deaths has reduced over the past two years
The number of accidental deathsfor the year 2016 was 4,18,221. This is a slight increase over the previousyear i.e. 4,13,457 in the year 2015. During the same time period, the estimatedpopulation of India grew from 125.91 crores to 127.39 crores. Hence the rate ofaccidental deaths has remained more or less constant i.e. 32.8 accidentaldeaths for 1 Lakh population.
The year 2014 recorded thehighest number of accidental deaths during the ten-year period ( 2007-2016)with 4,51,757 deaths. The rate was also the highest with 36.3 per 1 lakhpopulation. This was the highest after a period of gradual increase starting 2007when 3,40,794 accidental deaths were recorded. The year 2014 also saw thehighest increase in a year i.e. 51,240 more accidental deaths over the previousyear, increasing the rate of such deaths by 3.7 points.
Accidental
deaths due to ‘forces of nature’ have decreased
The year 2015 saw the sharpestdecline in the number of accidental deaths due to natural causes with 9,691 fewerdeaths than previous year. These deaths are a result of natural calamities.
In 2014, the total number ofdeaths due to such causes was 20,201 which reduced to 10,510 deaths in 2015.The fall in the number of deaths continued in 2016 with 8,684 deaths beingrecoded as accidents due to natural causes.
Over the 10-year period(2007-2016), the highest number of accidental deaths due to natural causes wasrecorded in 2010. This was also the only year where the number was higher thanthe previous year. The trend has been a declining one over the 10 years with2010 being the only exception.
Lightning
is the major natural cause for accidental deaths
Out of the 8,684 accidentaldeaths due to natural causes in 2016, the highest number of the deaths were dueto ‘Lightning’ which is a total of 3,315 deaths. Floods were the cause for thesecond highest number of deaths with 1,338. Meanwhile, 687 deaths were due to ‘Exposureto Cold”. Further 2,113 deaths i.e. 24.3% of the total have been listed ascaused by ‘other causes’ without any specific categorization.
There is no major change interms of the number of accidental deaths due to the major natural causes.  The number of deaths due to lightningincreased from 2,263 in 2012 to 3,315 in 2016. Similar trend is  observed with accidental deaths due to floods, where-in they increased from 420 in 2012 to 1338 in 2016.
The major dip in the number ofreported accidental deaths due to natural causes in 2015, can be attributed tothe dip in the numbers reported under ‘other natural causes’. Unlike in the caseof suicides, discussed in an earlier
story, there have been no new specific categories that havebeen added, which could have resulted in the numbers from ‘others’ moving tomore specific category. Hence the fall in the numbers remains a mystery, atleast under the ‘other causes’.
Traffic
Accidents are the major cause of Accidental Deaths due to Unnatural Causes
In the ADSI reports for 2014& 2015, the accidental deaths were reported under three Categories – ‘NaturalCauses’, ‘Unnatural Causes’ and ‘Other Causes’. However, in ADSI-2016 report, ‘UnnaturalCauses’ are clubbed under ‘Other Causes’, as was the case in the reports priorto 2014.
Accidental Deaths that are notdue to natural causes form a major portion of the accidental deaths. Thisnumber increased from 4,02,947 in 2015 to 4,09,537 deaths in 2016.  The year 2014 saw the highest number of accidentaldeaths in this category when 4,31,556 deaths were recorded. Except for 2015, thenumber of deaths in this category saw an increasing trend during the 10-yearperiod (2007-2016).
TrafficAccidents accounted for 43.4% of the total accidental deaths due to causes
not relating to nature. A total of 1,77,904 deathswere due to traffic accidents in 2016. Further 41,628 i.e. 10.2% of theaccidental deaths were sudden deaths. There have been 29,721 instances ofdeaths due to drowning while 23,094 people died due to poisoning.
1,984deaths in 2016 were due to Collapse of structure and 1,399 deaths were due tosuffocation. Around 5% of the accidental deaths were due to unknown causes. Nearly15% of the accidental deaths i.e. 61,170 deaths have reasons which do not fallunder the 21 categories that are mentioned in the report.
Road
Accidents have increased by 1.5 times over the Ten-year period
In2007, number of traffic accidents was reported as 1,31,652. Except for 2013,the number of traffic accidents increased every year.  The number of traffic accidents recorded in2016 is the highest during the 10-year period ( 2007-2016). The highestincrease in a single year was in 2008 when 1,44,587 accidents were reportedcompared to 1,31,552 in 2007  i.e. a 10%increase.
Roadaccidents form a major share of the traffic accidents. The other two categoriesas per ADSI report being ‘Railway Accidents’ and ‘Railway Crossing Accidents’.
In2007, there were 1,05,725 deaths due to road accidents. Over the ensuing 10years, the number of deaths due to road accidents increased every year (except2013). A total of  1,51,801 deaths werereported due to Road accidents in 2016.
Thetrends for Railway accidents have been inconsistent but the numbers do not havemajor variance. 27,765 deaths due to Railway accidents were recorded in 2013,the highest in these ten years. The year 2016 saw the least number of deathsdue to Railway accidents as well as the highest fall in a year i.e. 3,096.
Meanwhile,accidents at railway crossings have seen an increase with the trend beinginconsistent over 10 years. In 2013, this number was least (1,318 deaths)during the 10-year period and has increased in the subsequent years.
Lower
numbers reported under ‘Other Causes’ the major reason behind the fall in
overall numbers
Asnoted earlier in the article, the number of deaths reported under ‘OtherNatural Causes’ in 2014 was 14,024 which dropped to 3,114 in 2015 and to 2,113in 2016.
Similarly, 1,08,778 deaths were reported to be caused due to other causes not included in thecategories of ‘Unnatural Causes’ and ‘Other Causes’. The non-categorisedaccidental deaths were reported separately in 2014 under these two major heads.But since 2015, they are reported under one head of ‘Other Causes’. The number ofaccidental deaths which do not fall under any of the categories and groupedunder ‘Other causes’ were 64,227 and 61,170 in 2015
and 2016 respectively. No explanation for the fall in the ‘Other’numbers is found in the ADSI report.
Apartfrom this, the increase in the number of deaths due to road accidents, railwaycrossing accidents, floods etc. is a matter of concern.
Collecting& publishing the data related to accidents is one piece of the puzzle. Thecritical aspect is to use this information and act to mitigate the deaths dueto such avoidable accidents.