Eyes on the road: on India and road traffic fatalities

Source: The post “Eyes on the road: on India and road traffic fatalities” has been created based on “Eyes on the road: on India and road traffic fatalities” published in “The Hindu” on 12th September 2026.

UPSC Syllabus: GS-2-Governance

Context: India faces a serious road safety crisis. Despite having only 1% of the world’s vehicular fleet, India accounts for around 11% of road traffic fatalities. Therefore, road safety requires a systemic approach rather than focusing only on individual behaviour.

Major Challenges

1. High Contribution of Vulnerable Road Users: In 2024, two-wheeler riders accounted for 46.2% and pedestrians for 20.6% of road deaths. Thus, safety measures focused only on enclosed vehicles cannot address the majority of fatalities.
2. Poor Compliance with Safety Measures: Widespread non-compliance with helmets, seat belts, rear-seat belts and child restraint systems increases the severity of crashes. Victims may be ejected from vehicles or suffer fatal secondary collisions inside vehicles.
3. Speeding as a Major Cause: Speeding is the dominant recorded violation associated with fatalities. Therefore, reducing opportunities for vehicles to reach dangerously high speeds can potentially produce greater gains.
4. Weak Enforcement Capacity: Actual policing remains inadequate, partly because of chronic shortages in traffic police cadres.
5. Unsafe Road Environment: Roads are not always designed on the assumption that human errors will occur. Accident-prone locations and physical conditions that contribute to crashes require systematic correction.
6. Inadequate Emergency Response: Improving timely access to trauma care is essential for reducing deaths after crashes.
7. Weak Public Safety Culture: India lacks a strong public culture that consistently reinforces safe behaviour and discourages unsafe behaviour.

Way Forward: Safe System Approach

1. Safer Road Design: Governments should identify and fix accident-prone locations and create physical environments that compensate for human error.
2. Comprehensive Speed Management: A national strategy should focus on limiting opportunities for vehicles to accelerate to high speeds.
3. Better Vehicle Safety: Manufacturers should be encouraged to install tamper-proof seat-belt reminders and prevent unsafe modifications after purchase.
4. Protection of Children: Children’s exposure to two-wheeler traffic should be reduced, along with better use of child restraints and rear-seat belts.
5. Stronger Enforcement and Trauma Care: Traffic-police capacity should be strengthened and post-crash emergency and trauma services improved.

Conclusion: The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 created several mechanisms for improving road safety, but the data have not shown improvement at the scale required. Hence, judicial intervention alone cannot solve the problem. A sustained reduction in road mortality requires a Safe System approach combining enforcement, safer infrastructure, vehicle safety, speed management, public awareness and trauma care.

Question: Road traffic fatalities in India cannot be addressed merely through stricter enforcement or judicial intervention. Discuss the need for a comprehensive and ‘Safe System’ approach to road safety in India.

Source: The Hindu