Dr. Sandeep Ghand
Road safety in India has been reduced to challans, slogans, and ceremonial observances. What it urgently needs is accountability. In 2025 alone, nearly 1.6 lakh people lost their lives in road accidents—a number that reflects not reckless driving alone, but a systemic failure of governance.
An estimated 4.5 lakh road accidents occurred during the year, a rise over 2024. India continues to rank among the worst globally in road fatalities. Alarmingly, nearly 70 per cent of these deaths are linked to poor road conditions—broken surfaces, open manholes, incomplete construction, lack of signage, and stray animals roaming freely on highways.
These are not isolated mishaps. Roads soaked in blood are the outcome of negligent planning and institutional indifference. When laws apply strictly to citizens but authorities escape responsibility, road safety remains a hollow slogan. It is time to recognise road safety not as a moral appeal, but as a legal and constitutional right.
Road Safety Week and similar campaigns have largely become symbolic rituals. Enforcement is visible, but infrastructure remains dangerous. Hoardings and flex banners bearing political faces are erected at busy intersections in the name of awareness, often distracting drivers and causing accidents. Despite repeated directions from the Supreme Court and High Courts prohibiting such obstructions, violations continue unchecked.
Governments collect substantial revenue through vehicle registration fees and toll plazas. This creates a clear responsibility: if toll roads are unsafe or accidents occur due to poor maintenance or stray animals, authorities and concessionaires must be held liable. Traffic rules are meant to protect life, not merely generate revenue.
The judiciary has consistently held that safe roads are an integral part of the Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution. Deaths caused by potholes, open drains, or administrative negligence are not “accidents” but instances of gross governmental failure. Courts have ordered compensation, disciplinary action against negligent officers, recovery of damages from erring contractors, and time-bound repair of hazardous roads.
Bad roads are not inconveniences; they are causes of death. Failure to act despite prior knowledge amounts to a constitutional violation.
Citizens, too, are not silent spectators. Complaints, RTIs, media engagement, and Public Interest Litigations are legitimate democratic tools. Silence, in many cases, becomes complicity.
Road safety cannot remain confined to banners and seminars. It demands a culture of responsibility—where citizens follow rules, governments provide safe infrastructure, and courts intervene when negligence persists.
Under the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety (2021–2030), the goal is to reduce road deaths by 50 per cent. Without genuine administrative commitment, this target will remain aspirational.
Road safety is not charity, not a campaign, and not a formality. It is a constitutional obligation—and lives depend on how seriously we treat it.
