Road Crash Victims Underline Need For Safer City Speeds

India recorded an estimated 1.83 lakh road deaths in 2025, up from 1.74 lakh in 2023, according to the latest WHO Global Health Estimates. Against this backdrop, the Centre’s PM-RAHAT scheme launched early this year, which provides cashless treatment to road crash victims, highlights the importance of saving lives after accidents.

But experts say equal attention must go to preventing crashes in the first place itself and reducing the severity of injuries through better speed management.

Mahmood Ahmed, Additional Secretary, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, said nearly 25,000 road crash victims have received treatment under the scheme in the past eight months, while hospitals have been reimbursed for treatment costs in nearly 13,000 cases.

“Different studies suggest that 50% of lives can be saved by providing quick medical care to road crash victims,” he told The Health Outlook recently on the sidelines of a national seminar on “Rethinking Urban Speed: Speed Management for Safer, More Livable and Inclusive Cities”. It was organised by the Road Safety Network (RSN) in collaboration with the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre (TRIP Centre) at IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur.

PM-RAHAT provides cashless treatment of up to Rs 1.5 lakh per road crash victim for up to seven days from the date of the accident, subject to the scheme’s provisions.

Road traffic injuries ranked among the leading causes of death in India, placing 10th for both males and females in the WHO estimates cited. India accounted for a little over 14% of the 12.2 lakh road traffic deaths recorded worldwide in 2023, as per WHO data.

Experts say that the scale of the problem calls for speed limits in India too, where pedestrians, cyclists, two-wheeler riders, cars and heavy vehicles often share limited space on the roads.

Dr Nitin R Gokarn, Chairman, National Road Safety Board (NRSB), said Indian cities posed particular challenges because of the mix of road users and gaps in basic infrastructure.

In congested areas, the absence of usable footpaths forces pedestrians to walk on the carriageway. Wrong-side driving, inadequate medians and poor street lighting further increase the risk of crashes.

Gokarn said road safety needed to be addressed through the entire road environment, with particular attention to vulnerable road users and better data on two-wheeler crashes.

“Road safety requires us to look at the entire road environment and not vehicles in isolation. Vulnerable road users, particularly pedestrians and two-wheeler users, remain highly exposed to the consequences of unsafe speeds. We need better data on two-wheeler crashes, stronger attention to pedestrian infrastructure and effective implementation of safety measures,” he said.

Experts at the seminar were of the opinion that speed management must go beyond displaying speed limits. Limits should reflect road design, surrounding land use, traffic conditions and the presence of people walking or cycling. They also called for closer alignment between the speed a road is designed for, the posted limit and the speed at which vehicles actually travel.

Paris, for instance, said the experts, has a maximum speed limit of 30 kmph or less on 89% of its urban road network. The corresponding share in the Brussels-Capital Region is 86%.

Prof Bhargab Maitra, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, and member of the Road Safety Network, said speed management offered practical interventions that could be implemented in the short term.

“Speed management is doable, implementable and workable in the short term. It is not merely about reducing speed limits; it requires the right combination of engineering, enforcement and context-based speed regulation. Aligning road design, speed limits and operating speeds, while prioritising pedestrians, cyclists and two-wheeler users, can help make our urban roads safer and more inclusive,” he said.

Ahmed emphasised that motorists needed to understand that higher speeds did not necessarily reduce travel time but could increase the risk and severity of fatal crashes. He stressed the need for stronger electronic enforcement and action against traffic violations.

“Unless there is a certainty of punishment, the deterrence will never come,” he said.

Ashim Sanyal, Managing Trustee, Consumer VOICE and member of Road Safety Network (RSN) said speed-limit frameworks should explicitly prioritise the safety of vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, children, older persons.

“Safer cities require data-driven, people-centred speed management that brings together effective road engineering, robust enforcement and sound policy measures."

“Adopting people-centred, context-sensitive road design is the need of the hour to protect lives and make our roads safer.”

The participants at the seminar also highlighted the Safe System Approach, which recognises that human errors are inevitable and calls for roads and vehicles to be designed to prevent mistakes from resulting in death or serious injury.

Experts also stressed safer school zones, accessible footpaths, safe crossings, traffic-calming measures, better crash data and closer integration of road safety with urban planning and public transport, an essential to reducing the toll of road crashes.