Skip to main content

India tops road fatality figures

A new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) places India as having the highest annual road fatalities of any country in the world. The study is based on data collected from 11 May-13 December 2011, with 130,037 having been killed on India’s roads during this period. China had the next highest number of road deaths at 70,134, followed by Brazil at 36,499, the US with 32,885 and Russia with 26,567. Next in the list were were Iran, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand, with 23,249, 17,301, 14,804, and 13
September 16, 2013 Read time: 1 min
A new report by the 3263 World Health Organisation (WHO) places India as having the highest annual road fatalities of any country in the world. The study is based on data collected from 11 May-13 December 2011, with 130,037 having been killed on India’s roads during this period. China had the next highest number of road deaths at 70,134, followed by Brazil at 36,499, the US with 32,885 and Russia with 26,567. Next in the list were were Iran, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand, with 23,249, 17,301, 14,804, and 13,766 road fatalities respectively. The WHO report also highlighted that only 28 nations across the globe enforce road safety regulations covering the use of child safety seats, seat-belts and motorcycle helmets, as well as tackling drink driving and speeding. Of the total road fatalities in Thailand, nearly 74% involved road users on two or three-wheeled vehicles, while 13% and 8% accounted for four-wheeler motorists and light vehicle motorists/pedestrians respectively.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Helmet wearing a key priority in road safety
    February 27, 2012
    Politicians can be an easy target for criticism. Their job involves making decisions that affect the lives of others, whether popular or unpopular, which they believe are nevertheless for the common good. But every once in a while politicians; international, national or local, do something so unutterably stupid it defies explanation. And in the US state of Michigan, the Senate has done just that by approving the repeal of the motorcycle helmet law.
  • East African authorities trying to cut spiraling road death rates
    December 10, 2013
    Road fatality rates are rising in East Africa, despite attempts to stem the tide – Shem Oirere writes When a passenger bus in Kenya killed 42 people on August 29th 2013, it coincided with the release of a World Health Organisation (WHO) report that painted a grim picture of the status of road safety in East Africa. The accident at Ntulele shopping centre along the Nairobi-Narok highway, 90km from capital Nairobi, occurred when the bus heading to western Kenya lost control and crashed. The driver is said to
  • US pedestrian deaths fall but still high
    November 26, 2024
    According to analysis from the Governors Highway Safety Association - GHSA – annual US pedestrian traffic deaths fell for first time since the pandemic, but are still above the pre-pandemic level.
  • Tackling Indian road safety
    December 5, 2012
    India’s road safety record is the world’s worst but there are plans to tackle the problems. Patrick Smith reports from New Delhi. A speeded up video of a short section of road in the Indian capital Delhi was followed by a question. “How many infringements did you count in that 25-second clip on a typical day in Delhi,” asked Dr Rohit Baluja, a question that brought understandable silence. It equated to hundreds of millions of infringements each year, said Dr Baluja, president, Institute of Road Traffic Educ