Why is India's road safety system still failing?

Police and firemen at the scene of an accident where a tipper collided head-on with a Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) bus near Chevella in Rangareddy district on November 3. Photo credit: NAGARA GOPAL

Story so far: On November 10, the Supreme Court took cognizance of two mass road accidents in Rajasthan’s Phalodi town (14 dead) and Telangana’s NH 163 (19 dead). In 2023 alone, more than 1.7 million lives will be lost due to traffic accidents.

Licensing and training must be the first line of defense against accidents, not just an administrative formality. The driver’s license system is supposed to be a filtering process that determines who is fit to drive a vehicle and who is not. But in much of India, a driver’s license can be obtained without formal training. Driving tests are often reduced to superficial turns on small test tracks. There is no structured, standardized safety training for commercial drivers, whose vehicles can weigh more than 15 tons and carry dozens of passengers. And once a driver’s license is issued, several checks are made to assess the driver’s ongoing skills, physical fitness or mental alertness. Severely fatigued drivers – some with impaired vision or chronic illness – routinely drive heavy vehicles carrying unsuspecting passengers with no mechanism to detect or restrain them.

Published – 13 Nov 2025 08:30 IST