Kantilal Mandot, senior journalist
India is a rapidly developing country. Modern roads are being built, expressways are being prepared, the number of vehicles is continuously increasing, but along with this the problem of road accidents has also taken a terrible form. Today, road accidents are no longer just a traffic problem, but have become a matter of national concern. Every day hundreds of families are losing their loved ones. Some children are becoming orphans, some parents are losing their young son, some families are facing lifelong disability and financial crisis. This is the reason why the Supreme Court of India is also continuously expressing concern about road safety.
Recently the Supreme Court said that there is no concept of ‘lane driving’ in India and this is a major reason for road accidents. The court also expressed serious concern over non-installation of tracking devices and panic buttons in public vehicles. The court said that despite making rules, less than one percent of public vehicles in the country have these safety devices. This situation shows that road safety rules are limited to paper only.
The statistics of road accidents in India is extremely frightening. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, about 1 lakh 99 thousand people died in road accidents in the year 2024. This means that an average of 546 people lose their lives every day. If we look at it hourly, approximately 23 people die in road accidents every hour in India. This means that approximately every two and a half minutes a person is becoming a victim of a road accident. This figure is no less than a war or a major epidemic. The social and economic loss caused by road accidents has reached about 3.14 percent of India’s GDP. This means that road accidents are not only taking lives but are also weakening the economy of the country.
The biggest cause of road accidents in India is ignorance of traffic rules. People do not follow discipline while driving on the road. There is almost no enforcement of lane driving. Some vehicle suddenly enters the other lane, some takes a turn without giving any signal, and some overtakes at high speed.
This is why the Supreme Court specifically cited lack of lane discipline as a major reason for accidents.
Most people in the country still do not take helmets and seat belts seriously. The habit of not wearing helmet among two-wheeler drivers is proving to be the most dangerous. According to statistics, most of the deaths in road accidents are caused by two-wheelers. Two-wheeler accidents account for about 48.3 percent of the total deaths. This shows that people are ignoring the safety standards while riding bikes and scooters.
Pedestrians are also becoming major victims of road accidents. Pedestrians account for about 14.7 percent of total deaths. Lack of footpaths, illegal parking and uncontrolled traffic in cities are the main reasons for this. The share of car accidents is also 13.6 percent. Speeding, use of mobile phones, drunk driving and driving in the wrong direction are becoming major causes of car accidents. (These are the personal views of the author)
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