OPINION | India’s road safety crisis needs change, starting with a collective response

Road accidents kill far more people, yet they barely provoke urgency.

A Close Call That Changed My Perspective: One evening, while returning from a family gathering in Greater Noida, an SUV swerved recklessly in front of our car. For a brief, terrifying moment, my wife, our driver, and I thought the worst was about to happen. By sheer luck, we escaped unharmed.

That brush with mortality has stayed with me - not because it was extraordinary, but because such moments are frighteningly ordinary in India. Driving here often feels like gambling with life.

The Alarming Scale of India’s Road Crisis

India’s road safety record is nothing short of catastrophic. In 2022, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways recorded 4.61 lakh accidents, resulting in nearly 1.7 lakh deaths. That translates to 460 lives lost every single day, the equivalent of a packed Airbus A320 crashing daily.

Even at the city level, the toll is staggering. Delhi reported 470 deaths in 2023 alone. Behind each statistic is a family shattered, a community grieving, and a future erased.

Globally, road accidents claim 1.25 million lives annually (WHO). Low- and middle-income countries, including India, bear 92% of these fatalities despite having fewer vehicles. The impact extends far beyond personal tragedy accidents sap national productivity, overburden healthcare, and leave countless households in financial and emotional despair.

We treat floods, epidemics, and earthquakes as national emergencies. Road accidents kill far more people, yet they barely provoke urgency.

Why Do So Many Accidents Happen?

While the causes are varied, they fall into four clear categories:

* Speeding – The single biggest killer, responsible for more than 70% of road fatalities. Higher speed reduces reaction time and magnifies every impact.

* Drunk driving and distractions – Alcohol consumption and mobile phone use together account for a growing share of accidents. Phone use alone caused over 8% of crashes in 2022.

* Poor infrastructure – Potholes, unmarked turns, inadequate lighting, and poorly designed intersections make roads unforgiving, even for cautious drivers.

* Weak enforcement – India’s traffic laws look strong on paper, but inconsistent policing and casual compliance make violations routine. Helmets go unworn, seat belts unused, red lights ignored.

The vulnerable are the hardest hit. Pedestrians, cyclists, and two-wheeler riders account for a disproportionate number of fatalities. In too many tragic cases, entire families riding together perish in a single collision.

A Global Context

The dangers extend beyond India. The death of Kelvin Kiptum, the 24-year-old Kenyan marathon world-record holder, in a car crash earlier this year stunned the sporting world. In India, cricketer Rishabh Pant barely survived a highway accident that could have ended his career.

These stories grab headlines because of the celebrities involved. But every day, ordinary citizens die in similar accidents - software engineers commuting from work, retired professionals out on an evening ride, families on vacation. Their names rarely make the news, but their loss is no less profound.

Cultural Blind spot a Problem

India is advancing rapidly in science, space exploration, artificial intelligence, and healthcare. Yet in road safety, progress is stalled. Why?

Part of the problem lies in our cultural approach to rules. Too often, traffic laws are seen as optional. Impatience, aggression, and ego dominate driving behaviour. Civic responsibility - the sense that one’s safety is tied to the safety of others is often missing.

Infrastructure and enforcement matter, but without a shift in mindset, change will remain limited. Wearing a seat belt, respecting speed limits, refusing to drink and drive - these are not inconveniences, but survival essentials.

What Needs to Change?

To reverse the tide, India needs both systemic reforms and individual accountability:

1. Stricter Enforcement – Laws must be consistently applied. Technology such as speed cameras, breath analysers, and automated challans should complement police manpower. Enforcement must feel unavoidable, not episodic.

2. Smarter Infrastructure – Roads should be designed for safety, not just speed. Better signage, safer intersections, pedestrian crossings, street lighting, and stricter quality checks on construction are vital.

3. Education and Awareness – Road safety must be integrated into school curricula. Public campaigns should reach both urban drivers and rural communities, where awareness is lower and enforcement weaker.

4. Corporate and Civic Responsibility – Fleet operators, cab aggregators, and logistics companies must enforce strict driver training, monitoring, and rest schedules. Civil society should help normalize safe practices.

5. Personal Accountability – Every driver, rider, and pedestrian must take ownership of their safety and the safety of others. Helmets, seat belts, sobriety, and speed limits save lives.

A Call to Action

India aspires to be a global leader in technology, science, and trade. But no nation can claim true progress while losing nearly 1.7 lakh citizens annually to preventable road accidents.

This is not merely a question of law and order; it is a test of our values. Do we, as a society, truly value human life? Do we see every driver, pedestrian, and cyclist as a fellow citizen whose safety matters as much as our own?

The time for complacency is over. Road safety must be treated as both a public health priority and a moral obligation. Governments must act with urgency, and citizens must take responsibility. Every life lost is not just a personal tragedy, it is a national failure.

We cannot gamble with lives any longer. Safer roads are possible, but only if we collectively decide they are non-negotiable.

(Brij Kumar Guhare is former Programme Director at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Ministry of External Affairs.)

Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.