Can't reduce road accidents without changing human behaviour: Gadkari

BS Infrastructure Summit 2025: Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari says India cannot reduce road accidents without behavioural change, even as road engineering, auto safety, and enforcement improve

Every year, there are more than 500,000 road accidents in India, Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday. Despite efforts to make roads safer, Gadkari says the biggest battle to reduce road accidents and deaths is against human behaviour.

 

“Every year, we have five lakh accidents and one lakh eighty thousand deaths. Out of these, 66 per cent belong to the age group of 18 to 36. I’m really sorry, but first you need to understand what the problem is... the problem is that human behaviour," Gadkari said, speaking at the Business Standard Infrastructure Summit.

 

 

Roads are our responsibility: Nitin Gadkari

While there are environmental concerns and problems that come up, as the highways minister, Gadkari's responsibility lies with making roads safe.

 

"We already have orders for spot improvement at 40,000 sites. Now, we have started to identify waterlogging spots and landslide-prone areas. Safe roads are our responsibility, but road engineering and auto engineering are equally important,” he said. 

 

Auto safety standards

Gadkari noted that India’s automobile safety norms are now on par with international standards. “Cars from abroad, from all over the world, are coming to India for testing. So now there is competition. Six airbags—our automobile standards are already up to the mark. So, no problem with technology as far as safety is concerned,” he said.

 

Human behaviour a key challenge to road safety: Gadkari

While enforcement has been strengthened through a new road safety bill and higher fines, Gadkari underlined that behavioural factors remain the biggest cause of fatalities.

 

“Of the 30,000 accidents, the main reason is that people are not wearing helmets,” he said. To address this, the ministry has made it mandatory for two-wheelers to be sold with two IS-certified helmets.

 

Other challenges include poor lane discipline and disregard for basic traffic rules. “I am sorry to say, Indian people are athletic—they jump over two-foot barriers. What can we do about that? These are the reasons why we need to change human behaviour,” Gadkari said. 

 

To address this issue, the minister spoke about awareness campaigns launched in 22 regional languages with the involvement of public figures such as Amitabh Bachchan and Shankar Mahadevan. Special programmes for students are also in preparation, he added.

 

“We are introducing lessons related to road safety in the school curriculum,” the minister said. “At the same time, we are trying to educate people. Education is the only way we can change human behaviour. This remains a big problem. For that, we need cooperation from people like you who are in the media.”

 

Despite these steps, the overall numbers remain worrying. “After all these efforts and reports, we are trying hard, but still, we are not in a position to reduce the number of accidents and deaths,” Gadkari admitted. 

 

₹25,000 reward for taking road accident victims to hospital

The highways minister reiterated the initiative launched earlier this year, under which rescuers who take victims of road accidents to the hospital will receive an award of ₹25,000.

 

“For any accident that occurs on any road—state highway, district highway—we will provide up to ₹1,50,000, or the expenditure of seven days of treatment, whichever is less,” the minister added.

 

Concluding his remarks, Gadkari stressed that cooperation from citizens remains vital.

 

“So today, my feeling is that we need cooperation from the people, and that is very important,” he said.