The shocking death of Cyrus Mistry in September 2022 was just the latest in a string of high-profile traffic fatalities to blight India. As with the deaths of Gopinath Munde in 2014 and Sahib Singh Verma in 2007, Mistry’s passing immediately brought road safety to the fore of both the Indian public consciousness and legislative agenda. This essay looks at data to see what makes Indian roads unsafe, and evaluates the steps that the Indian government has taken in recent years to address the issue. Evidence shows that the government’s measures are insufficient and require a wider scope. This essay follows the framework of the four Es of road safety – education, engineering, enforcement, and emergency care, to offer recommendations on how India should proceed.
Recognising the Symptoms
Indian road safety statistics paint a bleak picture with regards to the scale of the problem. No country in the world recorded more fatalities on the road in 2019 – the most recent pre-pandemic year on record – than India, at a staggering 151,113 cases. Moreover, this is a figure that is trending upwards, rather than falling or even plateauing; in 2005, the figure was 94,968. This makes road accidents the 12th-leading cause of death in India. Just as concerning as this >50% increase in fatalities is the rise in severity of accidents. In 2005, 21.6 of every 100 accidents resulted in a death. In 2019, this figure had ballooned to 33.7 deaths per 100. This data suggests that India is still a considerable distance from meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.6 – to halve the number of road deaths and accidents by 2030.
India has tried to address its road safety problem. The Committee on Road Safety and Traffic Management was established in 2005, and based on its provisions, the National Road Safety Policy (NRSP) was approved in 2010. The NRSP outlined the government’s commitment to aid state and local administrations for crash investigation and safety management; a tightening of restrictions on obtaining driving licences; a review of road design practices; road safety publicity campaigns and the intention to establish hospitals and trauma centres by roadsides. In addition, the National Road Safety Board was created to oversee all matters relating to road safety, while the National Road Safety Fund facilitated budgeting for these measures. Yet, a decade on, it is clear that these actions have not been sufficient. One reason for this, paradoxically, is that conventional signs of development, such as increased private car ownership and road network development, have only served to exacerbate India’s road safety problem, as cars become more numerous and are enabled to travel at higher speeds. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ annual review shows that faster-moving roads are the epicentre of traffic accidents.
Diagnosing the Problems
In lieu of discouraging Indian highway development, it is worth analysing how crashes are happening, where they are happening, and what they are happening in, in order to find workable solutions to India’s road safety crisis. Despite arterial national and state highways comprising just 5% of roads in India, they account for 61% of all deaths. Crippling congestion has kept many of India’s larger cities immune, to a large extent, from accident rates seen elsewhere (the world’s top 12 most congested cities feature three from India). However, as the urban bleeds into the rural at the outskirts of cities, the diversity of traffic types and speeds – including the blending of motorised and non-motorised vehicles – causes a marked uptick in accident rates. Two-wheelers are by far the most at risk of suffering a fatality on the road: they accounted for 35% of all road-based deaths in 2019. The rate of two-wheeler ownership is four times that of four-wheelers, as per the registration statistics from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Association of India. But two-wheelers are less likely to be found on national highways – the most dangerous roads of all – and offer less protection to the driver in the event of an accident. Classification of the causes of road accidents in India is notoriously riddled with issues, which range from non-reporting to miscategorisation. From the data that does exist, speeding is the cause of the overwhelming majority of both injuries and deaths. However, there is a noticeable dearth of attribution to road engineering deficiencies, despite the NRSP accepting that this was a leading impediment to road safety in 2010, and the 2019 Motor Vehicles Bill Amendment reaffirming this sentiment.
Finding a Solution: Education and Training
Expanding on the framework elucidated by Verma et al. (2011), the recommended approach to solving India’s road safety conundrum is four-fold: education, engineering, enforcement, and emergency care. The first of these factors – education – is predicated on the notion that detrimental driver habits can be excised from the national norm, and replaced by a consciousness of safety and the environment. Mass publicity campaigns and driver training should therefore adhere to the Goal to Driver Education (GDE) matrix, as in Sweden, Norway and Finland. The GDE matrix takes a hierarchical approach to driver education, including considerations for personal attitudes towards driving and driving in traffic situations. Since adopting the GDE matrix as the basis for the theoretical aspect of driver training, the Nordic countries have all witnessed a reduction in traffic accidents and deaths. Crucially, the GDE must be combined with the assessment of technical driving skill to holistically prepare trainees for driving in all situations.
In terms of regulating the issuance of driving licences, the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Bill Amendment need to be further strengthened to ensure the greatest degree of driver proficiency and knowledge of the rules as possible. A three-stage licensing approach, as is found in New Zealand, is recommended. Studies have shown that categorising drivers as ‘learners’, ‘provisional’ and ‘fully licensed’ has reduced crashes in new drivers by up to 55%, as motorists are able to gradually adapt to situations of various complexities at a staggered rate. This is particularly pertinent as younger drivers between the ages of 18-25 form a considerable 28% of all road deaths in India. Although Indian states currently issue licences through Regional Transport Offices, legislators need to make a greater effort to impose some degree of national standardisation with regards to driver attitudes, awareness of safety measures, in addition to driving competency in an array of situations.
Improving Road Engineering
Indian road engineering is the second factor which requires significant improvement in order to ameliorate safety conditions. The Road Safety Audit (RSA) is a compulsory check for all planned highways, and provides guidelines for monitoring existing highways to measure them against road safety standards across a multitude of factors. The RSA has brought a much-needed level of scrutiny to Indian road engineering. Despite this, the RSA has flaws, such as a lack of specification for ‘qualified and independent’ auditors. Moreover, the RSA has failed to comprehensively address negative road safety trends on Indian highways. The most obvious area which demands attention is at the peripheries of cities. Given that national and state highways allow for any type of vehicle to drive on them, Jha (2022) highlights the pressing need for segregation of two-wheelers, non-motorised vehicles, and pedestrians from faster-moving cars and trucks. This would have the combined benefit of separating vehicles of differing sizes and speeds, as well as distinguishing between long-haul journeys and more local trips. Thus, the dangers that occur when urban driving practices are transposed onto fast-moving motorways – where rules are of paramount importance – could be mitigated.
Enforcing Safer Practices
Thirdly, driving laws and vehicle regulations require stricter enforcement by local authorities as well as state and national police. One way in which this could be addressed is by assessing vehicles’ roadgoing fitness. The Indian government is considering making it compulsory for new vehicles to pass safety guidelines as stipulated by the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP). Currently, regulations for new cars sold in India are far more lax than elsewhere. Although features such as airbags, anti-lock brakes and crash sensors are now recommended, it is unclear whether they will become mandatory for all new cars following the introduction of NCAP. Moreover, tests similar to the annual Ministry of Transport (MOT) examination for vehicle safety in the UK would go a long way towards ensuring that older cars continue to adhere to safety standards.
In addition to enforcement of vehicle regulations, driver practices must also be policed more effectively. This entails having more traffic police on the roads, as well as more stringent application of the rules, including more consistent and swifter penalties for violations such as speeding; driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol; not wearing a seat belt; driving while on the phone and not wearing a helmet on a two-wheeler, even if the driver or passenger is female or Sikh. Ross’ (1984) study on methods of traffic violations found that certainty and celerity (speed) of receiving fines were the most effective forms of social deterrents. Lamani (2013) suggests that the rules that are in place are improperly implemented for a multiplicity of reasons, including underfunding, elements of corruption, lack of staffing and the unmanageably high incidence rates of minor offences. Despite the best efforts of most traffic officers, Lamani highlights how failure – or inability – to punish violations denigrates authority and augments rates of reoffending. When implemented in conjunction with education and regulatory enforcement, stricter application of traffic rules would make Indian roads far safer.
Upgrading Emergency Care
The final area that requires attention is emergency care for victims of road traffic accidents. Tamil Nadu offers a blueprint for successful implementation. The state had the worst safety record per capita, yet in a reversal of the national trend, Tamil Nadu is reducing the number of accidents and deaths occurring within its borders: in 2014 there were over 15,000 fatalities, but this number fell to around 10,000 in 2019. A core element of Tamil Nadu’s effective road safety policy is its focus on emergency care. Emergency Care Centres and Accident Relief Centres have been built close to accident prone stretches of highways, while existing medical facilities were bolstered to rapidly respond to traffic incidents. The results of this are manifest: Markland, Bose and Haazen (2021) note that the average post-crash response time of trauma teams has been reduced to just 13 minutes from over an hour in 2011, comparable to Extremadura in Spain and Alabama in the United States, and considered “adequate” (Morales-Gabardino, 2021). Tamil Nadu utilised the cutting-edge GIS-based Road Accident Database Management System to digitally map accident hotspots, which informed where state legislators built medical facilities and upgraded infrastructure. This data-driven approach can help other states minimise fatalities in road accidents.
The other aspect of emergency care is provided through bystanders and passers-by. Enacted in 2016, the Good Samaritan Law has aided in emergency care being provided to crash victims. A 2018 SaveLIFE Foundation 2018 study found that the Act had had a positive impact on general willingness to aid stricken road goers, with 88% of responders confirming they would help, as opposed to just 26% in 2013, mostly as a result of the changes to potential legal ramifications for ‘good samaritans’. Implementation of the act has been patchy, however. The study found a general lack of knowledge of the policy amongst law enforcement and medical professionals, perhaps because 74% and 87% of the respective groups surveyed revealed they had not received any training on how to implement it. The Good Samaritan law has the potential, along with advancements in conventional medical care provided for roadways, to minimise the number of fatalities sustained through road accidents across India.
Indian legislative and regulatory bodies desperately need to take action to address what Sanjay Kumar Singh (2013) has termed India’s “neglected epidemic” – road accidents. The four Es have been the theoretical foundation for improving road safety for most of the 21st century. By adhering to these principles, nations such as Mexico, Uruguay and Indonesia have overseen a stark reduction in traffic accidents since 2000. With a similar level of per capita funding as these countries, India has an opportunity to emulate their holistic approach to road safety. This attitude expands beyond infrastructural upgrades and into changes in driver education and rigid rule enforcement, and has the capacity to drive success and steer India back on the road to reducing accidents and making commuting safer.
