Deccan Chronicle, July 26, 2025
By Pradeep S. Mehta
The main causes of these accidents are drivers, which has often been stated to be around 80 per cent of the total accidents. A focused attention on them is not being done anywhere in our huge country.
India’s roads remain among the deadliest in the world, claiming over 150,000 lives annually. This accounts for nearly 10 per cent of global road fatalities, despite having just over one per cent of the world’s vehicles. The financial cost is estimated to be around three per cent of GDP. Legislative efforts like the amended Motor Vehicles Act 2019 and technology-driven enforcement tools, including AI-powered speed cameras, signal the right intent but have yet to translate into meaningful and sustained improvements.
The main causes of these accidents are drivers, which has often been stated to be around 80 per cent of the total accidents. A focused attention on them is not being done anywhere in our huge country. Once we had submitted a proposal to do dual advocacy (education with enforcement) but that did not interest the mandarins. The vehicle for this was to use our huge army of retired defence personnel as they have the basic training on discipline.
Without deep-rooted behavioural change among drivers, enforcement agencies and institutions, India’s road safety landscape will continue to be fragmented and fatal. Among risky behaviours, speeding is by far the most lethal. According to the road transport and highways ministry’s 2023 report, over-speeding accounted for 67.3 per cent of all road accident deaths and 71.2 per cent of total crashes. The World Health Organisation warns that even a one per cent rise in speed increases the risk of fatal crash by four per cent. For vulnerable road users, the danger is even more pronounced, as a pedestrian hit at 65 kmph is four times more likely to die than one struck at 50 kmph. The hit-and-run death of 114-year-old marathoner Fauja Singh in Punjab is a stark reminder of the persistent threat posed by over-speeding.
States show uneven progress: While many states are testing different approaches, enforcement remains uneven nationwide and no attention is paid to education. Rajasthan’s 10-year Road Safety Action Plan aims halving road deaths by 2030, through highway safety audits, Good Samaritan incentives and behavioural interventions. It has also drafted a technology-driven Speed Management Blueprint to regulate limits and boost compliance. However, gaps persist due to weak inter-agency coordination and limited police capacity.
In contrast, Tamil Nadu, one of the worst-hit states, has reported a 15 per cent drop in road deaths in early 2025, driven by black spot rectification, automated enforcement and sustained public campaigns. On the Mumbai-Pune expressway, fatalities have reduced significantly following the deployment of Intelligent Traffic Management Systems. Karnataka’s radar-enabled speed cameras, Delhi’s digital speed signs and Kerala’s adoption of AI-based enforcement along with behavioural workshops for repeat offenders have improved compliance. Yet, these remain siloed initiatives rather than part of integrated, nationwide strategies.
Laws need clarity: At the same time, even the best state-level efforts can be undermined by gaps in the national legal framework. The Karnataka high court recently flagged this gap, urging stronger laws to curb reckless behaviour like wheelies, especially among young riders. Legal experts also point out that provisions like Section 281 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) are too lenient to deter dangerous driving. These concerns highlight the urgent need for a legal framework that reflects today’s traffic realities.
To address these gaps, reforms must go beyond piecemeal fixes. Unless enforcement firmly addresses all high-risk behaviour, particularly among two-wheeler users, deterrence will remain symbolic and safety improvements limited.
Policing to public service: Stronger laws alone cannot transform road safety, especially when enforcement remains episodic, under-resourced, and seen as punitive rather than preventive. Everyday safety behaviour like wearing seat-belts or helmets, yielding to pedestrians, or helping crash victims are rarely modelled by public leaders or reinforced through education and our movies.
India needs a cultural shift from transactional policing to public service. Traffic personnel must be trained not just in legal procedure but in empathy, dignity and community engagement. Kerala’s Student Police Cadet (SPC) programme offers a strong example of community participation. By instilling discipline, civic values and road safety awareness in adolescents, it’s shaping a new generation of responsible road users. Studies show improved helmet use and pedestrian behaviour among cadets and their families, proving that community rooted change works. This bottom-up approach complements the top-down leadership to sustain progress.
Leadership matters: Global examples show the power of political will. In Bogotá, Colombia, the mayor led a citywide speed management programme combining enforcement dashboards, public messaging, safer street design, and strict speed limits. Within two years, traffic deaths fell by 11 per cent, and by 26 per cent on roads with 50 kmph limits.
This shows that speed management is not just a technical issue, it is a governance challenge. A committed mayor, district magistrate or a municipal commissioner can break silos, build trust, and drive coordinated action across departments.
Call for action: India must treat road safety not as an afterthought but as a shared public value. While laws, technology and infrastructure provide the skeleton of a safe system, its true foundation lies in legal clarity, behavioural change and community-led enforcement.
We at CUTS urge all key actors — governments, police, city planners, civil society groups and academia — to unite behind an evidence-based road safety strategy. This includes enforcing critical provisions of the MVA without delay, and reviewing lenient provisions such as in the BNS. It also calls for scaling up community outreach programmes like SPC, investing in digital enforcement with human-centric training, and integrating road safety into urban planning, education, and health systems.
The writer is the secretary-general of CUTS International, a 42-year-old leading global public policy research and advocacy group. He has been a member of high-level committees on road safety of the road transport and highways ministry.
Simi T.B. contributed to this article
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