Syllabus: GS2/Governance
Context
- The fifth anniversary of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, alongside the Road Accidents in India 2024 report, has renewed focus on India’s persistent road-safety crisis.
About Road Safety in India
- Road safety is a public policy, public health and governance challenge involving road users, vehicles, infrastructure, enforcement and post-crash care.
- India’s rapid urbanisation, motorisation and expansion of road networks have increased mobility but also exposed systemic weaknesses.
- According to the MoRTH’s Road Accidents in India 2024, nearly 1.77 lakh people lost their lives in road crashes in 2024.
- It underscores the gap between legislative intent and outcomes on the ground.
- The challenge is particularly significant because road crashes disproportionately affect pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users.
- The Sundar Committee (2007) and subsequent reports underscored the need for institutional reforms, higher accountability, and a multi-pronged strategy.
Key Provisions of the MVAA 2019
- The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, effective from September 1, 2019, strengthened India’s legal framework through:
- Higher penalties for several traffic violations and stronger deterrence against dangerous driving.
- Greater accountability of vehicle owners, drivers and other stakeholders.
- Protection for Good Samaritans who assist crash victims.
- Recognition of the critical ‘golden hour’ following a road crash.
- Strengthened vehicle safety and recall-related provisions.
- Greater use of technology and electronic enforcement.
- However, implementation remains uneven. Helmet and seat-belt compliance, child restraint use, enforcement capacity, road engineering and emergency response vary considerably across States.
Achievements and Positive Impacts
- Digitisation via Vahan and Sarathi platforms enhanced transparency in licensing and registration.
- Provisions for Good Samaritans reduced bystander hesitation. Vehicle safety norms have tightened (mandatory airbags, ABS, seat-belt reminders in newer models).
- On National Highways, 2025 data indicated an nearly 11% reduction in accidents and fatalities compared to 2024 in some reports, attributed to better engineering, black-spot rectification, and enforcement.
- The long-term death rate per 10,000 vehicles has declined even as the vehicle population surged (from ~191 million in 2014 to over 350 million by 2024), indicating some relative safety gains amid rapid motorisation.
Key Legislative Frameworks for Road Safety in India
- Motor Vehicles Act, 1988: It is principal legislation governing motor vehicles, licensing, registration and traffic regulation.
- Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019: It strengthened penalties, accountability, victim protection and enforcement.
- Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989: These prescribe operational and safety requirements for vehicles and drivers.
- National Road Safety Policy, 2010: It provides a broad policy framework based on awareness, enforcement, engineering, emergency care and research.
- Motor Vehicle Driving Regulation, 2017 and subsequent safety regulations: These seek to improve driver behaviour and vehicle standards.
- Road safety requires coordination under the 4Es ie Education, Engineering, Enforcement and Emergency Care, increasingly supplemented by technology and data.
- Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat NCAP): Star-rating system for vehicle crash safety (operational since ~2023).
What are the Concerns and Issues?
- Implementation Deficit: Strong laws do not automatically translate into compliance. Enforcement differs across States and cities.
- Vulnerable road users: Pedestrians, cyclists, two-wheeler riders and children face disproportionate risks.
- Unsafe school transport: Lack of consistent adherence to safety norms, inadequate child restraints and risky pick-up/drop-off practices threaten children.
- Road engineering deficiencies: Accident-prone black spots, poor junction design, inadequate pedestrian infrastructure and weak road safety audits remain concerns.
- Human factors: Speeding, drunk driving, distracted driving, non-use of helmets/seat belts and fatigue continue to contribute to crashes.
- Post-crash Care: Delays in ambulance services, trauma care and coordinated emergency response can convert survivable injuries into fatalities.
- Data gaps: Fragmented crash data limits evidence-based identification of dangerous locations, behaviours and interventions.
Global Benchmark
- The global shift is towards the ‘Safe System Approach’/Vision Zero, which recognises that humans make mistakes and that road systems should prevent those mistakes from becoming fatal.
- Countries such as Sweden have demonstrated the value of combining safer road design, speed management, vehicle safety and institutional accountability.
- The UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021–2030 seeks to reduce global road deaths and injuries by at least 50% by 2030.
- India’s approach therefore needs to move beyond blaming individual road users towards designing a forgiving road system.
Way Forward: Strengthening Road Safety Framework in India
- Adopt a Safe System approach: Integrate safer roads, vehicles, speeds and user behaviour.
- Strengthen data-driven enforcement: Use AI-enabled cameras, e-challans, telematics and real-time crash databases to target high-risk behaviour.
- Eliminate black spots: Conduct mandatory road safety audits and rapidly rectify hazardous stretches and junctions.
- Make school travel safer: Enforce school-bus standards, age-appropriate child restraint systems, safe boarding zones and regular vehicle/driver checks.
- Improve emergency care: Build integrated ambulance networks, trauma-care capacity and rapid crash reporting to protect the golden hour.
- Promote safer vehicles: Encourage advanced driver-assistance systems, pedestrian protection and stronger safety standards.
- Build behavioural ownership: Parents, schools, employers, transport operators and communities must treat helmet, seat-belt and child-restraint use as everyday safety practices.
- Strengthen institutional coordination: Road safety should be a shared responsibility across transport, police, health, urban development, education and infrastructure agencies.
Conclusion
- The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 provided India with a stronger legal foundation, but the persistence of nearly 1.77 lakh road deaths in 2024 shows that legislation alone is insufficient.
- The next phase needs to convert legal provisions into safer infrastructure, consistent enforcement, safer vehicles, effective emergency care and responsible road behaviour.
- For a Viksit Bharat, mobility needs not to merely be faster and more accessible, it needs to be safe, inclusive and life-preserving.
| Daily Mains Practice Question [Q] Discuss the key gaps in the implementation of road-safety measures in India and suggest a Safe System-based approach to make Indian roads safer. |
