Statsguru: Cyrus Mistry's death triggers debate on road safety in India

A Business Standard analysis found that the share of deaths related to overspeeding went up from 34.2% in 2014 to 55.9% in 2021

The death of Cyrus Mistry has rekindled the debate on road safety in the country. At a Business Standard event last week, minister of road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari said that road safety was one area where he could not succeed. On another occasion, the minister set a timeline for reducing road accidents and deaths by 50 per cent by 2024.

While road accidents have declined in recent years (chart 1), data from National Crime Records Bureau shows that road accident-related deaths have risen (chart 2). Analysis, however, also shows that the growth rate of road accident deaths has been declining. Between 2017 and 2021, road accident deaths increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 0.9 per cent, compared to 2.2 per cent between 2013 and 2017. The share of overspeeding deaths has risen.

A Business Standard analysis found that the share of deaths related to overspeeding went up from 34.2 per cent in 2014 to 55.9 per cent in 2021.

On the other hand, the share of deaths due to dangerous or careless driving or over-taking declined to 27.5 per cent (chart 3). Pedestrians have been the worst affected, as pedestrian deaths have almost tripled between 2014 and 2021. Further analysis shows that the share of cars and similar vehicles in road accident deaths has declined. Nearly 19,000 pedestrians died in 2021, compared to 6,690 deaths in 2014. Rural areas account for three in five road accident deaths in the country (chart 4). In 2021, rural areas accounted for 62.7 per cent of accident deaths, while the urban share was 37.3 per cent (chart 5).

Monitoring by the authorities has improved. Between February 2017 and August 2019, 13.9 million traffic challans were issued (chart 6). Between 2019 and 2021, traffic challans increased to 41.4 million. A total of Rs 5,044.4 crore was collected as fine during this period.

StatsGuru is a weekly feature. Every Monday, Business Standard guides you through the numbers you need to know to make sense of the headlines