India’s poor road safety sees increasing deaths

Official statistics from India paint a poor picture for road safety, with road deaths increasing. During 2015 there were around 146,000 reported deaths from road crashes in the country, an average of 400/day and an increase of 5% from the previous year. Road crashes increased by 2.5% to around 501,000 in 2015. The actual casualty figure for India may be significantly higher however as many road deaths go unreported. Capital Delhi saw 1,622 road deaths during 2015 the greatest number for any city, althoug
June 14, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Official statistics from India paint a poor picture for road safety, with road deaths increasing. During 2015 there were around 146,000 reported deaths from road crashes in the country, an average of 400/day and an increase of 5% from the previous year. Road crashes increased by 2.5% to around 501,000 in 2015. The actual casualty figure for India may be significantly higher however as many road deaths go unreported.

Capital Delhi saw 1,622 road deaths during 2015 the greatest number for any city, although Mumbai suffered from more road crashes, with 23,468. The states of Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were the most dangerous for road crashes. Kerala has figured highly in India’s road crash rate for many years with its narrow and twisty mountain roads seeing a particularly high proportion of fatal incidents.

Of concern is that people aged 15-34 accounted for 54.1% of those killed in road crashes. Driver error was a major cause of 77.1% of the crashes, with speeding being one of the prime problems.

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