India's terrible toll

India’s horrific death toll on its roads presents a major threat to the country’s fast economic development. Estimates from the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) suggest that some 130,000 people die on the roads/year, at an average of around 14 deaths/hour. Under-reporting of accidents is thought to be endemic and the figures available exclude the 1.6 million serious injuries that have been estimated by the IRTE. Close to 146 million traffic violations/day occur in the country according to the IRTE
April 19, 2012 Read time: 1 min
India’s horrific death toll on its roads presents a major threat to the country’s fast economic development. Estimates from the 5035 Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) suggest that some 130,000 people die on the roads/year, at an average of around 14 deaths/hour. Under-reporting of accidents is thought to be endemic and the figures available exclude the 1.6 million serious injuries that have been estimated by the IRTE. Close to 146 million traffic violations/day occur in the country according to the IRTE’s estimates, though only 20,000 are booked by the police. A lack of enforcement and support from the state or central governments as well as the non-existence of a proper traffic management system has led to this current situation

Related Content

  • High-res traffic data provides planners with the big picture
    November 5, 2015
    Road authorities have a lot to gain from high-resolution traffic data, argues Pravin Varaiya. Traffic engineers have traditionally been forced to operate with limited data regarding the performance of their arterials. Traffic studies are often commissioned once every three years, over a few days, to get an updated estimate of utilization.
    Read More
  • Connected citizens boosts Boston’s traffic management
    March 30, 2017
    Data-derived traffic management is starting to show benefits as David Crawford discovers. The city of Boston has been facing growing congestion problems in its Seaport regeneration district, with the rate of commercial and residential growth threatening to overtake the capacity of the road network to respond.
    Read More
  • Progressing work zone safety systems
    February 1, 2012
    David Crawford investigates progress in a key safety area - work zones. Highway construction zone safety is taken seriously enough in the US to merit a special spring National Work Zone Awareness Week, which in 2010 ran from 19-23 April. Headed by the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), this aims to reduce an annual toll of work zone deaths - 720 in 2008 (an average of one every 10 hours) with more than 40,000 traffic injuries (an average of one every 13 minutes).
    Read More
  • Progressing work zone safety systems
    February 6, 2012
    David Crawford investigates progress in a key safety area - work zones
    Read More

Highlighted Content