By any measure, India’s roads are among the most dangerous in the world. Each day, nearly 500 lives are lost to road accidents. That’s one life every three minutes ~ an astonishing toll in a country priding itself on rapid infrastructure growth and global aspirations. Yet, for all the focus on expressways and economic corridors, a silent epidemic continues to unfold on our streets, highways, and village roads. What makes this crisis even more tragic is that it is entirely preventable. At the heart of the problem lies a fatal cocktail: flawed road engineering, reckless driving, inadequate traffic law enforcement, and a disregard for basic safety norms. India’s traffic is a chaotic mélange of motor vehicles, two-wheelers, bicycles, carts, animals, and pedestrians, all jostling for space.

This complex ecosystem demands intelligent, locally-sensitive infrastructure, not a blind replication of Western road models that are ill-suited to Indian realities. Poorly designed roads are death traps. Medians built too high, roads without shoulders, elevated carriageways due to unchecked resurfacing, and barriers that cause more harm than good ~ all contribute to fatal outcomes. In many areas, roads slice through densely populated areas without any thought for pedestrian safety. Children cross highways. Vendors spill into roads. Stray animals wander freely. And yet, we keep widening roads without addressing their fundamental design flaws. But to blame infrastructure alone is to miss the point. Human behaviour, too, plays a decisive role.

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Over-speeding, drunk driving, the widespread neglect of helmets and seatbelts, and rampant road-use without licences show a shocking disregard for life ~ our own and others’. Enforcement is lax, and where rules exist, compliance is minimal. Building new roads without changing this culture is like handing out weapons without teaching responsibility. Another glaring gap is in emergency response. Many of the lives lost could have been saved with timely medical intervention. But across most of India, trauma care is an afterthought, not a priority.

There are neither enough ambulances nor trained personnel in critical areas, particularly along national highways and rural belts. Moreover, our institutions must stop treating road fatalities as isolated incidents. These are systemic failures, and without data transparency and accountability, any meaningful, sustained progress will remain elusive. Road safety cannot be seen in isolation. It is a public health issue, a governance issue, and above all, a human issue. What is needed is a national reckoning ~ a recognition that our approach to road development must shift from quantity to quality, from speed to safety.

The government must enforce accountability, ensure rigorous safety audits, and incentivise designs that prioritise vulnerable road users. We need not just better roads, but safer ones. Because behind every statistic is a name, a face, and a family shattered. No country can call itself developed while its roads continue to claim lives so carelessly. The time to act was yesterday. The second-best time is now.