Why are India's roads among the most deadly worldwide

Every morning, the newspapers in India are full of traffic accidents – passenger buses are immersed in mountain boxes, drunk drivers, mowing pedestrians, cars collide in stationary trucks and two -wheeled vehicles.

These daily tragedies emphasize a silent crisis: in 2023 alone, over 172,000 people lost their lives on Indian roads, an average of 474 deaths every day or nearly one every three minutes.

Although the official 2023 crash report has not yet been published, the Minister of Road Transport and Highway Nitin Gaddari indicated the data to paint a gloomy picture At an event for road safety in December.

Among the dead this year were 10,000 children. Accidents near schools and colleges represented another 10,000 deaths, while 35,000 pedestrians lost their lives. Two -wheel riders also carry the weight of the victims. Excessive speed is usually emerged as the biggest reason.

The lack of major safety precautions also turned out to be deadly: 54,000 people were killed because they did not wear helmets and 16,000 not to wear seat belts.

Other major causes included overload, which led to 12,000 deaths and driving without a valid certificate, which is reported in 34,000 crashes. Driving on the wrong side also contributed to the victims.

In 2021, 13% of the accidents included drivers with a permit for learning or without a valid license. Many vehicles on the road are old and there are no major safety features such as seat belts – let alone airbags.

This dangerous road environment is further complicated by the chaotic mix of trafficking in India.

A disturbing array of users crowds of India. There are motorized vehicles such as cars, buses and motorcycles that fight for a place with non -motorized transport, such as bicycles, bicycle rickshaw and strollers, carts with animals, pedestrians and stray animals. Hockers enter the roads and pedestrian paths to sell their goods, forcing pedestrians on busy roads and further complicating the flow of traffic.

Despite the efforts and investment, the roads of India remain among the most dangerous in the world. Experts say this is a crisis, the roots not only in infrastructure, but also in human behavior, gaps in implementation and systemic neglect. Road accidents impose a significant economic burden, It costs India 3% of its annual GDP.

India has The world's second largest road networkIt covers 6.6 m kilometers (4.1 m miles), just after the United States. The national and state highways together make up about 5% of the total network, while other roads – including brilliant speeds controlled by access – report the rest. There are approximately 350 million registered vehicles.

Nuts told the Road Safety meeting that many road accidents occur because people have no respect and fear of law.

“There are several reasons for accidents, but the greatest is human behavior,” he said.

Still, this is just part of the picture. Only last month's boards pointed Bad construction practices – Insufficient design of roads, non -standard construction and low control – along with inadequate signs and markings, with key contributing to an alarming high percentage of road accidents.

“The most important culprits are civil engineers … Even small things like road signals and the marking system are very bad in the country,” he said.

Since 2019, his ministry has reported 59 major disadvantages in national highwaysIncluding cave built, Gushari told parliament last month. To 13 795 identified predisposed to the accident “black spots”Only 5.036 have suffered a long -term repair.

Over the years, road safety audits conducted by the Center for Transportation of Transport and Prevention of Injuries (Trip) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have revealed serious shortcomings in India's road infrastructure.

Get a crash barriers. They are intended to safely stop vehicles that deviate from the road – without overturning them. But in many places they do the opposite.

Despite the clear standards of height, distance and installation, ground reality often tells a different history: metal barriers at the wrong height, mounted on concrete foundations or poorly placed. These disadvantages can cause a vehicle, especially a truck or bus, to roll over instead of being safely stopped.

“Unless they are installed exactly as stated, crash barriers can cause more harm than benefit,” said Gaeamam Tivani, a professor of construction at IIT Delhi, Geetam Tiwari.

Then there are high environments – or road dividers, as they are called locally. On high -speed roads, medians should gently separate traffic in the opposite direction. They should not be higher than 10 cm (3.9 inches), but audits show, many are.

When the tire of a high -speed vehicle hits a vertical median, it generates heat, risks bursting the tire, or even lifting the vehicle from the ground – leading to dangerous rollover. Many medians in India are simply not designed, given this threat.

Stretching the highway near the capital, Delhi, stands as a great example – a cut through dense settlements on both sides without safety measures to protect residents. Groups of people are uncertain about medians as high -speed traffic plays.

And then the raised lanes are raised. On many rural roads, the repeated re -curvature has left the main road, which rises six to eight inches above the shoulder.

This sudden decline can be deadly – especially if the driver rotates to avoid an obstacle. Two-wheelers are most at risk, but even cars can slide, top or turn. With each layer added, the danger simply continues to rise, experts say.

It is clear that the design standards in India are solid on paper – but poorly applied to the ground.

“One of the key issues is that non -compliance with safety standards attracts minimal sanctions. Contracts often do not apply clearly to these requirements, and payments are usually related to constructed kilometers – not to compliance with safety standards,” says Prof. Tivani.

Recently Minister Gadari announced Ambitious plan to upgrade 25,000 km of highways with two lanes Up to four strips. “This will help significantly reduce road accidents,” he said.

Experts like Kavi Bhala at the University of Chicago are skeptical. Mr Bhalla, who has worked on the safety of road roads in low and medium-sized countries, claims that road projects in India often mimic Western models, ignoring the unique needs of traffic and infrastructure of the country.

“There is no reason to believe that the expansion of the road will lead to less deaths of traffic. There is a lot of evidence that the modernization of the road in India leads to higher speeds of traffic, which is deadly to pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists,” he says.

“A key problem is that the new roads in India simply copy the designs of roads used in the US and Europe, where traffic is very different. India is trying to build a US-based infrastructure in the United States, but does not invest in engineering studies in US highway engineering and catastrophe data systems,” Mr. Bhala added.

To deal with the escalating road safety crisis, the government “applies” 5es “Strategy: Road Engineering, Vehicle Engineering, Education, Implementation and Emergency, Says KK Kapila from the International Federation on the Road. (According to a report from the India Legal Commission, timely medical care for emergency medical care could save 50% of the deaths of road accidents.)

Capilla helps the federal government in a road safety plan. He says seven key states have been asked to identify their most proposed sections. After applying targeted interventions based on the 5ES framework, these sections “have become the most secure” in their countries, he told me.

Most economists agree that building more roads is crucial for the growth of India, but it must be sustainable and not have a priority over the life of pedestrians and cyclists.

“The cost of development should not be worn by the most overwhelming segments of society. The only way to learn how to build such paths is to try to do interventions, to judge whether they improve safety, and if they do not help, change them and evaluate them again,” says G -n Bhalla. If this does not happen, the roads will become more honest, cars will die more -and more people will die.

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