The death toll is almost directly proportional to growth in road coverage, presenting road crashes as an unfolding public health crisis which demands immediate attention
India has nearly 1.5 lakh kilometres of national highways, a network that is growing fast and has transformed the state of road transport across the nation. But this modern infrastructure is also claiming more lives than ever before in road accidents. The latest numbers available tell us that India recorded 1.72 lakh road deaths and over 4.6 lakh injuries in 4.8 lakh road crashes in 2023. We have better roads, smarter enforcement technology and stricter penalties, all of which should lead to lesser accidents. But the death toll on Indian roads is almost directly proportional to growth in road coverage, presenting road crashes as an unfolding public health crisis that demands immediate attention. We are faced with a complex problem that has led to epistemic erosion, a case where data exists but learning has failed. We know what is wrong, but we have unsafe roads primarily because of unlearned lessons.
Road safety deteriorates when communities, which includes vehicle users, pedestrians as well as the authorities managing the system stop learning and acting on what keeps roads safe. Gradual loss of evidence-based enforcement, and lack of institutional learning encourages unsafe practices to persist. This builds into a culture that gets worse over time, with safety compromised by the users, the very demographic that will suffer the most and probably be hurt or die on the roads of India.
One aspect of safety is directly linked to the vision of the government. When political pressure overrides evidence, planners ignore crash data. They begin normalising violations, the community accepts these transgressions, and catastrophes on the roads follow. It is ironic that governments in India sit on large ‘road crash’ data, yet authorities deal with engineering, enforcement and public health in watertight compartments.
The first step therefore ought to be the enforcement of strict penalties for traffic violations. Traffic challans, as they are colloquially called, are a tool to financially disincentivise violations and record those for future administrative/legal action. Law enforcement agencies in India have significantly improved their ability to accurately ‘detect’ traffic violations and also the capacity to issue challans promptly. However, the collection of the challan amount/fines has not kept pace with detection. This is one reason why road discipline and road safety have taken a hit. Some cities even report fine collections as low as 5%. There should be zero tolerance for non-payment/delayed payment of challans.
Uncollected fines encourage traffic violations. The majesty of the law lies in its implementation to meet the purpose of its promulgation in letter and spirit. Prompt ticketing is the proverbial ‘last mile’ of enforcement of rules and would be a severe disincentive to taking and causing risks. It will incentivise expected road behaviour for overall safety of all road users. There is also a principle of equity between violators – those who pay promptly and those who do not. Ideally, every transgressor should be held accountable.
In Delhi, there are about 2.5 crore challans pending against private drivers and about 20 lakhs against commercial drivers as of 2025 according to traffic police data.
These figures contradict the common impression that commercial drivers flout rules with impunity. Of the approx 3 crore pending cases, almost one third are for speeding violations and about 48 lakhs for unauthorised parking, two major reasons for road crashes/casualties. Recently, in Pune, when a high-profile road crash grabbed the national headlines, it dawned on the authorities that the offender had multiple traffic challans pending against him. If only the offender could have been made to pay for his traffic violations in time, perhaps lives could have been saved and trauma avoided, even for the offender and his family. This addresses the problem known as the “broken window syndrome” in policing, which holds that when small disorders are not fixed, the area over time becomes a haven for more crime.
Clearly, collecting fines for traffic violations is a low hanging fruit that is falling prey to pressures from the political side that sees the accumulating unpaid fines as largesse by allowing delays in payments, or even waivers and write offs. In this context, the clear statement from Telangana that there would be no amnesty is to be welcomed and supported. If this becomes the new trend, then it addresses many concerns and will help send out an important signal that will help check violations and therefore accidents.
While penalties are one aspect that can be easily fixed, we also need to study complex inter linkages like the conduct of driving tests and issue of driving licenses, maintenance of roads, quality of repairs, poor traffic engineering and installation of road signages, etc. that are a very serious challenge to road safety and professional traffic management. Consider the ease with which driving licences are issued or can be virtually bought across the nation. What is the value of a driving test when you negate or reduce a serious exam? Further, consider that while many of the roads are slick and well laid out, the tendency to create diversions, hurdles or maintenance work that starts without warning and without adequate and visible signage adds new dangers for fast moving traffic. Adding to that are poor or inappropriately placed or badly lit traffic signposts which are classified as mandatory, cautionary or informatory and we can begin to see how the system is designed to fail.
We need holistic solutions that can work across the value chain. One effort worth a mention is the proposed linkage between insurance and challan systems – a system in which higher challans will lead to higher insurance premiums. India cannot be a developed nation with a high rate of accidents.
Billion Press
(The writer is a former Director General of the NSG, Joint Commissioner of Police Traffic Hyderabad and Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada).
