Now Reading: Festive season fog driving tips after 14,617 deaths in 2023
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Festive season fog driving tips after 14,617 deaths in 2023
The Story in Brief
As winter sets in and large numbers travel from Delhi-NCR to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and other states for Diwali and Chhath Puja, the risk of accidents on highways and expressways in fog rises sharply. Both businesstoday.in and aajtak.in report that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) recorded 34,266 road accidents during fog and mist in 2023, killing 14,617 people and injuring 30,646, about 7.1 percent of all road accidents that year. Uttar Pradesh alone saw 8,191 such accidents with 4,408 deaths, the outlets add.
The articles list key precautions: keep speed low and use low beam headlights and fog lamps instead of high beam, which reflects off water droplets and worsens visibility. Maintain extra distance from the vehicle ahead, avoid sudden braking and overtaking, and never stop on a moving lane of the highway. Before starting a journey, check headlights, tail lights, tyres, brakes, wipers and defoggers, and carry a first aid kit. If tired or sleepy, stop at a safe place to rest, coffee is no substitute for sleep, both sources note.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Both businesstoday.in and aajtak.in offer nearly identical service-journalism coverage: they lead with the same MoRTH accident toll for 2023 and the same Uttar Pradesh figure, then present the same set of driving tips. Neither outlet adds any official comment, policy critique, or safety advocacy beyond the advisory. The uniform framing is straight public-information reporting, with no government-critical or pro-government slant on this story. The balanced takeaway is that both sources treat the data as a given and focus on individual driver behaviour rather than infrastructure or enforcement gaps.
The concrete next step they both imply is for readers to check weather forecasts and highway advisories before setting out for Diwali and Chhath Puja travel.
Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral
Sources (2): businesstoday.in (neutral report), aajtak.in (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.
