Road Accidents in India

Table of Contents

About Road Accidents in India:

According to National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) data, a record 155,622 lives were lost to Road Accidents and 371,884 were injured in 2021.
- The numbers account for reported Road Accidents cases, actual numbers may be higher.
- In 2020 1.33 lakh lives were lost due to Road Accidents.
A 2021 World Bank report states that with only 1% of the world’s vehicles, India accounts for 11% of all Road Accidents related deaths. This is the highest in the world.
State-wise Distribution (2021):
Highest number of Road Accidents: Tamil Nadu
Most Road Accidents related deaths: Uttar Pradesh
Most deaths per Road Accidents: Bihar

Law on Road Safety: Section 194 (B)(1) of The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019: Whoever drives a motor vehicle without wearing a safety belt or carries passengers not wearing seat belts shall be punishable with a fine of one thousand rupees.
Government has made it mandatory for Road Safety, Automakers to provide three-point seat belts for all front-facing passengers in a car, including the middle seat in the rear row of a car.

Major reasons for non-compliance in India are
Carelessness about safety: Rules as mandated by law are often neglected or shoddily implemented.
- Compliance of seat belts in the rear seat is poor in India. Most of the times only front passengers are required to wear seatbelts
Expensive safety features: A plan to make six airbags compulsory for all cars had to face major pushback due to the consequent rise in cost of car.
- With average salary of an Indian about Rs. 16,000 per month, car ownership itself is a dream in most families.
- Most people tend to give more importance to cost (mileage) than safety features while buying cars.
- Research shows that traffic death rates are a function of income growth: when countries are poor, they experience rising injuries with increasing income; when countries are rich, they experience declines in traffic injury with increasing income.
Poor law enforcement: The corruption of the machinery and the high non-compliance of laws leads to a lax attitude among law enforcement agencies.

With the rising fatalities of Road Accidents each year, India needs to relook at the policy making and policy implementation when it comes to Road Safety. This is becoming all the more important as various infrastructural projects are being undertaken in various parts of the country for Road Safety. Also, awareness campaigns to bring to fore the dangers of non-compliance needs to be made routinely.