FICCI - Crisil Knowledge Report Towards Safer Future : Redefining India`s Road Safety Landscape
The FICCI–CRISIL Knowledge Report: Towards Safer Future – Redefining India’s Road Safety Landscape (2025) underscores the urgency of addressing India’s road safety crisis, which claims nearly 20 lives every hour and disproportionately affects two‑wheeler riders, pedestrians, and the working‑age population. In 2023 alone, the country recorded 4.8 lakh accidents, 1.73 lakh fatalities, and 4.62 lakh injuries, highlighting the scale of the challenge. The report identifies over‑speeding as the deadliest violation, responsible for nearly 68% of accidents, alongside wrong‑side driving, drunken driving, and mobile phone use. National highways, though only 2% of the road network, accounted for more than one‑third of fatalities, underscoring infrastructure gaps. It emphasizes that road safety is a shared responsibility across policymakers, industry, civil society, and individuals, calling for systemic reforms including safer road designs, stricter enforcement, advanced vehicle technologies, and stronger emergency care systems. Technology interventions such as AI‑enabled monitoring, fatigue detection, and integrated accident databases are highlighted as transformative solutions. Drawing inspiration from global best practices, the report urges India to adopt a coordinated, data‑driven framework aligned with commitments under the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety and the Marrakech Declaration, aiming to reduce fatalities by 50% by 2030 and positioning road safety as a moral, social, and economic imperative.
Key Takeaways
- India recorded 4.8 lakh accidents, 1.73 lakh fatalities, and 4.62 lakh injuries in 2023, averaging 20 deaths every hour.
- Two-wheeler riders (45%) and pedestrians (20%) remain the most vulnerable groups.
- Over-speeding (68.4% of accidents)is the deadliest violation, followed by wrong-side driving, drunken driving, and mobile phone use.
- National highways, though only 2% of the road network, accounted for 36.5% of fatalities, highlighting infrastructure gaps.
- The working-age population (18–45 years) bears 66% of the burden, creating a socioeconomic crisis.
- Road safety requires multi-stakeholder collaboration: policymakers, industry, NGOs, and individuals.
- Policymakers must strengthen enforcement, institutional frameworks, and evidence-based interventions.
- Industry should accelerate adoption of ADAS, airbags, fatigue detection, and fleet monitoring technologies.
- Civil society and NGOs play a vital role in awareness campaigns, victim support, and behaviour change.
- Technology interventions such as iRASTE (AI crash prevention), iRAD (national accident database), fatigue detectors, and AI-powered traffic monitoring are transformative.
- Global best practices (Thailand’s helmet enforcement, Brazil’s pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, Sri Lanka & Bangladesh’s regional collaboration) provide valuable lessons.
- The report calls for a coordinated, data-driven framework aligned with the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2021–2030) and the Marrakech Declaration (2025) to reduce fatalities by 50% by 2030.
- Road safety is positioned as a moral, social, and economic imperative essential for sustainable development.