Why does India’s road safety system keep failing?

Why in News?

• On November 10, 2025, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of two major road accidents in Phalodi (Rajasthan) and NH-163 (Telangana), killing 33 people.
• The Court highlighted India’s recurrent road safety failures, despite years of policy efforts.
• India recorded over 1.7 lakh road deaths in 2023, reaffirming its status as the world’s deadliest road network.

The Magnitude of the Problem

• 1.7 lakh fatalities and 4.4 lakh injuries (2023) – among the highest globally (NCRB 2024).
• India accounts for ~10% of global road deaths, though it has only 1% of the world’s vehicles.
• Crashes kill more Indians annually than major diseases like TB or AIDS.

Licensing & Training Failures

• Systemic Weakness:
  • Licensing treated as an administrative formality, not a safety filter.
  • Untrained drivers can easily obtain licences through brokers or corrupt channels.
• No standardised driver training:
  • Commercial drivers lack structured, scientific instruction in vehicle control, fatigue management, or hazard perception.
• Post-licence negligence:
  • No periodic skill or health reassessment.
  • Fatigued, visually impaired, or ill drivers operate heavy vehicles unchecked.
• Reform Imperative:
  • Implement mandatory simulator-based and certified driver training.
  • Create a national digital licence registry linking training history and penalties.

Enforcement Deficit

• Core causes: Speeding, overloading, lane indiscipline, drunk driving.
• Policing weaknesses:
  • Manual enforcement—inconsistent, corrupt, and resource-poor.
  • Limited use of automated systems (ANPR, speed cameras, e-challans).
  • Weak data integration—violations rarely result in penalty recovery.
• Judicial push:
  • Supreme Court has directed States to adopt electronic enforcement standards, but compliance is patchy.
• Way Forward:
  • Full deployment of ITMS (Integrated Traffic Management Systems).
  • AI-based monitoring of speeding and lane behaviour.

 Infrastructure Deficiencies

• Unsafe road design:
  • Outdated engineering prioritised speed over safety.
  • Poorly banked curves, missing barriers, blind intersections, and poor illumination are common.
• Unforgiving roads:
  • Even minor driver errors result in fatalities due to hazardous road conditions.
• Maintenance & planning failures:
  • Broken medians, unmarked construction zones, and encroachments increase risk.
• Pedestrian neglect:
  • 13% of all fatalities are pedestrians; sidewalks and crossings are rare or encroached.
• Best-practice model:
  • Zero Fatality Corridor (ZFC) – Mumbai–Pune Expressway:
    • Data-driven design + enforcement + trauma response cut crash deaths by 50%.

Post-Crash Trauma Care

• Golden Hour Problem:
  • Survival often depends on care in the first hour, not the impact.
• Ambulance disparity:
  • Rural India faces delays >1 hour; even cities lack trained paramedics.
• Facility gaps:
  • Local hospitals often lack trauma specialists, blood banks, and resuscitation gear.
• Legal proposal:
  • A Right to Trauma Care Law could mandate:
    • Time-bound emergency response standards,
    • Coordinated trauma networks,
    • Accountability for delay or denial of care.
• Model Initiatives:
  • SaveLIFE Foundation’s Emergency Response Model, Tamil Nadu’s 108 Ambulance Network.

Structural Problem – Siloed Governance

• Fragmentation:
  • Licensing (Transport Ministry), infrastructure (MoRTH/NHAI), trauma care (Health Ministry) operate separately.
• Lack of coordination:
  • Road safety needs a unified command—linking engineering, enforcement, and emergency care.
• Institutional reform:
  • Empower National Road Safety Board (NRSB) as an apex body for integrated policy and monitoring.

Root Causes

• Administrative apathy and fragmented accountability.
• Weak data culture — poor crash investigation and absence of real-time analytics.
• Over-prioritisation of speed and throughput over human life.
• Low civic discipline and lack of public awareness on road ethics.

Way Forward

• Systemic Integration: Unified command for transport, police, and health.
• Design Safety First: Adopt global Safe System Approach — roads built to absorb human error.
• Evidence-based Engineering: Replicate Zero Fatality Corridor model nationwide.
• Professional Training: Mandatory driver certification; AI-based licensing tests.
• Right to Trauma Care: Legal framework for emergency response time.
• Public Awareness: National behaviour-change campaigns under Sadak Suraksha Abhiyan.

Significance

• Road safety is both a public health and governance challenge.
• Preventing crashes aligns with SDG 3.6 (reduce road injuries and deaths by 50% by 2030).
• A transparent, accountable safety ecosystem enhances India’s human capital productivity and global road safety ranking.

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