Why India’s Road Safety System Keeps Failing?

Context

The Supreme Court recently took cognisance of two major road accidents: one in Phalodi, Rajasthan (14 deaths) and another on NH-163 in Telangana (19 deaths). These incidents highlight India’s persistent road safety crisis, where over 1.7 lakh people died in road crashes in 2023. The issue raises urgent questions about licensing, enforcement, infrastructure quality, and trauma care.

What is India’s Road Safety Problem?

1. India’s road safety failures stem from multiple interconnected weaknesses:
   1. An ineffective driver licensing system
   2. Weak and inconsistent traffic law enforcement
   3. Unsafe and poorly designed road infrastructure
   4. Lack of a coordinated and reliable trauma care network
2. These issues function in silos, creating a fragmented system where small errors turn into fatal outcomes.

Why Does India Need Strong Road Safety Systems?

1. To prevent rising fatalities on highways and urban roads.
2. To protect vulnerable road users: pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport passengers.
3. To reduce economic losses linked to medical care, productivity decline, and property damage.
4. To improve public confidence in transport systems.
5. To fulfil international commitments such as the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.

How India’s Road Safety System Fails? (Key Components)

1. Licensing Problems: Licensing is meant to be the first line of defence, filtering unfit drivers. However:
   1. Driving licences can be obtained without formal training.
   2. Driving tests are often perfunctory (done quickly as a duty without any interest or feeling), limited to small tracks.
   3. Commercial drivers, who operate 15-tonne vehicles carrying many passengers, have no structured, mandatory safety training.
   4. After a licence is issued, there are no periodic checks of skills, eyesight, fatigue levels, or medical conditions.
   5. Many drivers with poor vision, chronic illnesses, or extreme fatigue continue to operate heavy vehicles unnoticed.
2. Enforcement Weaknesses: Major causes of fatal crashes (speeding, drunk driving, overloading, and lane violations) continue due to:
   1. Dependence on manual policing, which is resource-poor and inconsistent.
   2. Limited use of technology such as automated cameras and digital challans.
   3. Poor data integration and weak recovery of penalties.
   4. Patchy adoption of electronic enforcement, despite repeated Supreme Court directives.
3. Weak Road Infrastructure: Poor road design converts small mistakes into deadly crashes. Key issues include:
   1. Poorly banked curves, lack of crash barriers, and inadequate lighting.
   2. Missing rest areas, forcing heavy vehicles to stop dangerously on highways.
   3. Highways designed decades ago for speed and throughput, not safety.
   4. Broken dividers, unmarked construction zones, encroachments, and exposed concrete structures.
   5. In cities, minimal pedestrian infrastructure, forcing people to walk in unsafe zones.
   6. However, evidence shows infrastructure improvement works. On the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Zero Fatality Corridor project reduced deaths by more than half.
4. Gaps in Trauma Care: Survival often depends on the “golden hour” after a crash. Key failures:
   1. Ambulance services vary widely across States.
   2. Rural delays often exceed an hour.
   3. Victims are regularly extracted by bystanders or police without medical support.
   4. Local facilities often lack trauma units, blood banks, or equipment.
   5. Lack of coordination among licensing, road design, health, and enforcement authorities.
   6. A proposed Right to Trauma Care law could mandate time-bound emergency response norms.

Challenges and Way Forward

Conclusion

India’s road safety crisis is not due to one failure but a chain of weaknesses, from licensing and enforcement to infrastructure and medical response. A safe road system requires these components to work together. Through coordinated governance, technology-driven enforcement, better road design, and strong trauma care, India can transform its roads from hazardous corridors into safer public spaces.