GUWAHATI, March 23 - Traffic accidents are the biggest reason for fatalities among accidental deaths in the State.
As per the latest data in the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were 7,633 traffic accident cases, including road accidents, railway crossing accidents and railway accidents in Assam in 2015, the latest year for which data have been released.
A total of 3,058 persons died and another 7,068 persons were injured in these traffic accidents.
The NCRB data show that during 2015, there were altogether 4,331 accidental deaths in Assam, including 236 accidental deaths due to natural causes, 3,910 due to unnatural causes (including traffic accidents) and 185 due to other causes.
Assam�s share in the total accidental deaths nationwide in 2015 was one per cent. Across India, there were over 4.13 lakh accidental deaths that year.
However, the number of accidental deaths in the State due to natural causes went down by almost 19 per cent year-on-year in 2015 to 236 as against 291 in 2014.
Similarly, the total number of accidental deaths due to unnatural and other causes combined also fell by 26.4 per cent in 2015 to 4,095 compared to 5,562 in 2014.
Of the total victims of accidental deaths in Assam in 2015, 183 were in the age group of below 14 years, 673 were between 15 and 18 years of age, 1,436 were in the 19-30-year age group, 1,124 were 31-45 years of age, 709 were in the 46-60 year age group and 206 were above 60 years of age.
Of the total deaths, 3,697 were of males and 634 were of females.
Among the natural causes of accidental deaths, floods took the lives of 196 persons in Assam in 2015, while 15 deaths were on account of landslide, 21 due to lightning, two were due to exposure to cold, and one each was due to cyclone and forest fire.
In the �unnatural causes� category, traffic accidents were responsible for the highest number of deaths (3,058). Among other causes were drowning (613), electrocution (35), collapse of structure (25), accidental explosions (one), falls (17), accidental fire (91), factory or machine accident (17), firearms (six), other causes (17) and causes not known (30).
With regard to persons who died in the State by other causes of accidents in 2015, the NCRB data state that 46 deaths happened on account of sudden deaths (which included industrial accidents and heart attack), one came under �deaths of women during pregnancy,� 64 were killed by animals and 74 deaths were on account of poisoning, including food poisoning, accidental intake of insecticides or pesticides, poisonous gases, snakebites and bites of animals, reptiles or insects.
