Why Are Traffic Deaths So High In India?

In India, out of one lakh people, 16.6 die every year in road mishaps. This is higher than Canada's record, where the figure is 6, United Kingdom (2.9) or the United States (10.6), where the corresponding figure is much lower. In 2015, close to 1.46 lakh people died in road accidents in India. This number is alarming because this is greater than the number of Indians who died in all the wars the country has fought. Then, why are road fatalities so high in India?

Nearly two-third deaths happen on highways due to speeding. According to a study by The Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), on some national highways almost all vehicles violate speed limits. This, of course, means that such transgressions go unpunished. This also shows that such norms are not in harmony with the structure and quality of roads, and the nature of vehicles that ply on them.

When norms and reality are a mismatch, authorities find it difficult to enforce them, because it is hard to blame drivers. Drivers do not feel much guilt when they flout norms, for the same reason. IRTE points out that the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which has the lowest speed limit among expressways globally, has the highest road fatality too. This is because such norms are poorly enforced but authorities can trim the number of fatalities by strongly enforcing norms that are more reasonable.

It is not hard to enforce certain legitimate norms, such as stipulating that drivers should procure licences legally. Officials estimate that 25 per cent of the driving licences in India are procured illegally -- a major cause of accidents as well.
Overloading is another major reason for accidents. About 100 people die every day because of overloaded trucks. Vehicles usually run at a higher speed than the authorised capacity. When vehicles are overcrowded, drivers find it difficult to exercise control over driving, thus, leading to mishaps. Owing to better enforcement of regulatory norms, the number of such deaths has reduced in the past few years. But it is difficult to lower overcrowding without addressing the root cause – meeting the high demand for such forms of commercial transport.

India does not have enough surfaced roads either. George Mason University economics professor Alex Tabarrrok points out that the country does not have enough roads, relative to the population. Gurgaon, for example, has only 1.6 kilometre of surfaced roads per thousand persons, while San Francisco has 10 km of surfaced roads per thousand persons. Gurgaon is not a one-off case. Most Indian cities are worse. Tabarrok also points out that junctions and tollbooths are poorly planned, and this is true of even high-quality roads like the Dwarka-Gurgaon Expressway.

Drunken driving is another cause. The part of the reason why penalising drunken driving does not seem to be working is that the penalty is too low. There is also less intrinsic motivation to drive carefully. A car driver is also less likely to die than pedestrians. Authorities find it difficult to raise the penalty for drunken driving and other such misbehaviour because income levels in India are low. But without imposing reasonably high penalties and strongly enforcing them, this is not likely to come down significantly. Policy makers think that it is place the blame squarely on drivers because population density and road congestion are high in India, while road quality is lower. But population density does not necessarily lead to more accidents or road accidents. Fairly dense cities like Singapore do not have congested roads, for example. Other major cities like London have lowered road congestion by imposing better norms too. This is so important in India, where roads are becoming more congested as vehicle ownership has risen manifold.