India accounts for 11 per cent of global death in road accidents: World Bank(thehindubusinessline.com)
thehindubusinessline.com
India accounts for 11 per cent of global death in road accidents: World Bank
https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/india-accounts-for-11-per-cent-of-global-death-in-road-accidents-world-bank/article33834556.ece
98 comments
India has far more two-wheelers than cars. The 57 million figure probably excludes the former because in 2016 India had ~250 million vehicles of all types [0] (so it's probably over 300 million now). This is an important distinction in this case because 48% of road fatalities in India involve 2-wheelers, vs 30% for 4-wheelers [1].
This is just pedantics of course - there's no doubt that Indians' traffic hygiene in general is abysmal. I was living that nightmare every day until Covid put a pause on it :-).
[0]: https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/files/Road_Transport_Year... [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/749669/india-fatal-road-...
This is just pedantics of course - there's no doubt that Indians' traffic hygiene in general is abysmal. I was living that nightmare every day until Covid put a pause on it :-).
[0]: https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/files/Road_Transport_Year... [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/749669/india-fatal-road-...
It's probably more appropriate to use kms driven than just number of cars, but thats probably harder to find reliable data for globally.
Not only kms driven, but kms above a given speed driven. If you've been to India, a lot of the driving in cities is at extremely slow speeds such that death is a rare outcome for collisions.
And also, a lot of the driving is on scooters/motorcycles/other vehicles with far more chances of bodily injury and death than in other places, so it's basically impossible to make any comparison.
And also, a lot of the driving is on scooters/motorcycles/other vehicles with far more chances of bodily injury and death than in other places, so it's basically impossible to make any comparison.
You also need to consider that the same car in different countries will be tailored to the local regulations in terms of safety equipment - which in India is quite lax. For example it only became a requirement in 2019 that cars are fitted with ABS and a driver airbag (passenger airbags are still optional):
https://www.thequint.com/tech-and-auto/car-and-bike/mandator...
https://www.thequint.com/tech-and-auto/car-and-bike/mandator...
This page[1] has more detail and context, but in short, I don’t buy the “lower speeds cause less accidents” — the human cost of road traffic incidents in India is immense. Especially when you count injuries and maimings, which isn’t reported here.
Road traffic related injuries and fatalities are also massively under-reported in India’s press because of various cultural reasons, notably that the problem is so deep-rooted that reporting on it has the same newsworthiness that water is wet. The only time it does get reported widely is if the victim is famous.
Anyhow, India has 16.6 traffic deaths per 100,000 population, which is pretty high. For 1.1 billion people, that’s what — 180k deaths? And more injuries. On a human scale, this is to the point that most families know people who’ve died or been badly injured in road traffic accidents.
It also has 130.1 deaths per 100,000 motor vehicles per year, which is higher than neighbouring SE Asia, and higher than all but two regions (Eastern Med & Africa).
tl;dr — please don’t use minimise the scale of the problem road traffic accidents cause in India. Indians deserve safer roads just like everyone else.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
Road traffic related injuries and fatalities are also massively under-reported in India’s press because of various cultural reasons, notably that the problem is so deep-rooted that reporting on it has the same newsworthiness that water is wet. The only time it does get reported widely is if the victim is famous.
Anyhow, India has 16.6 traffic deaths per 100,000 population, which is pretty high. For 1.1 billion people, that’s what — 180k deaths? And more injuries. On a human scale, this is to the point that most families know people who’ve died or been badly injured in road traffic accidents.
It also has 130.1 deaths per 100,000 motor vehicles per year, which is higher than neighbouring SE Asia, and higher than all but two regions (Eastern Med & Africa).
tl;dr — please don’t use minimise the scale of the problem road traffic accidents cause in India. Indians deserve safer roads just like everyone else.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r...
The most fair common comparison I’ve seen is per-capital traffic deaths against China. India still comes out bad. This brings up one of my most vivid/terrifying travel memories, crossing a busy intersection in Chennai. Traffic lights were not observed, so the way to cross was like something out of fairy tale advice: step out, walk slowly, don’t run, don’t stop and don’t turn back. The bike/cars/buses/trucks will all drive around you. There is not consensus on whether or not to make eye contact with the drivers, however. I was not familiar with this at the time, and followed closely behind some other folks crossing the street. For the record, most of the world is not like this, even the developing world. The only other places I’ve heard of having to do this are Manila and HCMC. To get an idea of what it’s like, do a video search for “India intersection” - there is a “viral” video from 10-ish years ago that captures the chaos pretty well.
In India I was in constant fear for my life, unless traffic was slowed to a crawl. In HCMC I could at least see that there was some sort of system. I'd rather be on the back of a mototaxi in Vietnam than in a car in most of China too, every taxi ride was terrifying.
I don't think most traffic deaths happen at busy intersections in India during the day. The speeds are too low for serious accidents.
Indian highways (National and State) disproportionately account for a majority of the deaths and accidents on Indian roads. A 2019 report from the Road Ministry states that [1] "Highways (both National and State) which accounted for about 5% of total road network witnessed a disproportionately large share of accidents of 55 % and accident related fatalities of 63% during the year 2019 and naturally become the focus of our attention. More accidents on these have been attributed to higher vehicles speeds and increasingly higher volume of traffic on these roads."
Indian highways are notoriously under-policed, way worse than urban roads. You can literally go twice the speed limits and never get ticketed. Coupled with bad designs, illegal pedestrian crossings and a mix of vehicular traffic with widely different speeds leads to a dangerous mix of conditions.
[1]: https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/files/RA_Uploading.pdf
Indian highways (National and State) disproportionately account for a majority of the deaths and accidents on Indian roads. A 2019 report from the Road Ministry states that [1] "Highways (both National and State) which accounted for about 5% of total road network witnessed a disproportionately large share of accidents of 55 % and accident related fatalities of 63% during the year 2019 and naturally become the focus of our attention. More accidents on these have been attributed to higher vehicles speeds and increasingly higher volume of traffic on these roads."
Indian highways are notoriously under-policed, way worse than urban roads. You can literally go twice the speed limits and never get ticketed. Coupled with bad designs, illegal pedestrian crossings and a mix of vehicular traffic with widely different speeds leads to a dangerous mix of conditions.
[1]: https://morth.nic.in/sites/default/files/RA_Uploading.pdf
Don’t forget rural roads frequently and immediately transition into roadworks projects with little or no signage! Just a piece of wood that says “diversion”
I feel like at least this way the drivers are paying attention to everything on the road. I noticed in Indonesia, the way you turn into a road is not to wait for a big gap, but to judge if the car coming down that road towards you has enough room to semi-comfortably slow down before it would hit you (if their tyres have to screech to stop they'll honk at you), if that's the case, it means you're free to enter... it's terribly inefficient time and energy-wise because cars have to brake and accelerate all the time, and all the cutting in means traffic becomes a crawl anyway.
It is also terribly dangerous as the the accident statistics show. People are not good at paying attention continuously, so we need to make rules and infrastructure that minimize the bad effects of inattention.
In India, drivers don't know what safe driving is. Constant tail gating; overtaking where it is not safe to do so. Add this to the lack of enforcement. I would say 99% of Indian drivers will fail any DMV tests (both written and behind-the-wheel) conducted in states such as California.
Lack of sleep: hired drivers (cab drivers, lorry drivers, etc) don't take enough rest, thereby contributing to deadly crashes at night.
Unsafe parking on high ways: During nights, often bikes and other vehicles ram into parked trucks in the middle of no where. These parked vehicles should leave some kind of flasher cones for 400 feet or so. Another result of bad driving practices, along with no traffic enforcement.
Auto-rickshaws (3 wheelers) and motor bikes (2 wheelers): whenever I hear about accidents in India, there is a 85% chance that these deadly vehicles are involved in accidents. These auto-rickshaws (esp during day time) just swerve at last minute on Indian highways. Either ban these vehicles on highways or build a special lane for these 2-, 3-wheelers.
Lack of sleep: hired drivers (cab drivers, lorry drivers, etc) don't take enough rest, thereby contributing to deadly crashes at night.
Unsafe parking on high ways: During nights, often bikes and other vehicles ram into parked trucks in the middle of no where. These parked vehicles should leave some kind of flasher cones for 400 feet or so. Another result of bad driving practices, along with no traffic enforcement.
Auto-rickshaws (3 wheelers) and motor bikes (2 wheelers): whenever I hear about accidents in India, there is a 85% chance that these deadly vehicles are involved in accidents. These auto-rickshaws (esp during day time) just swerve at last minute on Indian highways. Either ban these vehicles on highways or build a special lane for these 2-, 3-wheelers.
It’s kinda funny because I was horrified when I had to retake my driving license in California, coming from France where the driving test is actually hard, at how ridiculously easy it was.
My US driving test in NJ took place at an abandoned airport runway where they checked to see if you looked in the rear view and side mirror, stopped at the stop sign, parallel parked between cones 25 feet apart, and did a K turn.
On a completely deserted road with no other cars. The idea of failing a driving test in the US is preposterous to me.
On a completely deserted road with no other cars. The idea of failing a driving test in the US is preposterous to me.
In an Europe country where I live examiners purposely bring you to tricky locations and of course it's in full traffic. I think only around 30 percent pass on the first try.
Not sure about today, but this is similar in difficulty to an Indian driving test from 20 years ago.
It's not like that everywhere. In Seattle you do it in regular traffic.
> I would say 99% of Indian drivers will fail any DMV tests (both written and behind-the-wheel) conducted in states such as California.
In reality, no, it wouldn't be anywhere close to this figure. People are quite good at adapting to other countries, laws and systems. Given the Indian education system's higher emphasis on rote memorization, they would pass the written tests as much or more than people from many other countries. The actual driving test could be a problem only for the people who find it difficult to switch from right hand drive to left hand drive.
I agree with the rest of your points though.
In reality, no, it wouldn't be anywhere close to this figure. People are quite good at adapting to other countries, laws and systems. Given the Indian education system's higher emphasis on rote memorization, they would pass the written tests as much or more than people from many other countries. The actual driving test could be a problem only for the people who find it difficult to switch from right hand drive to left hand drive.
I agree with the rest of your points though.
Of course, one can pass the test by reading a DMV booklet. That's not the issue. Lets take a DMV test paper, and remove questions that deal with numbers (speed limits, alcohol contents, etc), and just give a subset of questions that are focussed on safety. Any experienced driver can answer these questions correctly, not because these drivers memorize by rote learning, but because they would have figured the reasons behind rules (similar to ratio legis in law).
Don't over take vehicles at turns. That's illegal, says the booklet. Why this rule is there? You can't see the oncoming traffic. Similarly, don't over take vehicles on uphill. Same reason: you can't see vehicles coming from the other direction. Every Indian driver in India violates this basic rule. One such driver went to visit a national park in Alaska, thereby killing four people in his vehicle and paralyzing a couple of guys in the oncoming vehicle.
Don't over take vehicles at turns. That's illegal, says the booklet. Why this rule is there? You can't see the oncoming traffic. Similarly, don't over take vehicles on uphill. Same reason: you can't see vehicles coming from the other direction. Every Indian driver in India violates this basic rule. One such driver went to visit a national park in Alaska, thereby killing four people in his vehicle and paralyzing a couple of guys in the oncoming vehicle.
I think they meant they would fail it without preparation. As a former Indian driver myself (still Indian :-P, but don't drive there) I'd happily wager that a vast majority of drivers who learned and have driven only in India would fail a behind-the-wheel test in the US. I've failed a couple myself, even with lots of practice (I'm gonna cite nerves, instead of a lack of knowledge, in my case but still).
>In India, drivers don't know what safe driving is.
Also, the incentive to take risks while driving is higher since the competition to feed their family by making the delivery on time or driving that overloaded truck is higher.
Also, the incentive to take risks while driving is higher since the competition to feed their family by making the delivery on time or driving that overloaded truck is higher.
Yup, the DMV point especially resonates with me.
When I got my driver's licence, the only thing they verified was that I could put the car in gear and drive it in a straight line a couple of meters.
Was glad to have a thorough driver's test when I moved to the US.
When I got my driver's licence, the only thing they verified was that I could put the car in gear and drive it in a straight line a couple of meters.
Was glad to have a thorough driver's test when I moved to the US.
You're pulling "statistics" out of your ass and being kinda racist. Don't do that.
From GP's post I surmised that they are Indian or have spent a substantial amount of time in India. Being Indian myself, I didn't sense any racist intent. You're right that they are pulling numbers out of their ass. But from my own personal experience, drivers in India drive extremely aggressively, and regularly do things that would be an instant fail in any US road test.
I realize what you're saying, but it's still rhetorically foolish at best to say things like "Asians can't drive."
I live in CA, and I've met a lot of folks from India (not a statistically significant number though, of course!) and they seem to drive here just fine.
I know what you mean about driving in India. I watch video of Indian traffic. It's fascinating. How can folks drive like that and not have ( more ) carnage on the road?
But it's still "racist" to say "Indians can't drive.", even if the person is themselves Indian. (And of course, there are many races and ethnicities in India, eh? Bharata is hardly a mono-culture. So the word "racist" isn't quite correct anyhow.)
Someone once said to me "Women can't drive. My mom even said so." I said, "All that proves is that your mom is sexist."
OP may not have intended to be racist, sure, but being racist out of ignorance (or just not having thought it through) is still ugly.
I live in CA, and I've met a lot of folks from India (not a statistically significant number though, of course!) and they seem to drive here just fine.
I know what you mean about driving in India. I watch video of Indian traffic. It's fascinating. How can folks drive like that and not have ( more ) carnage on the road?
But it's still "racist" to say "Indians can't drive.", even if the person is themselves Indian. (And of course, there are many races and ethnicities in India, eh? Bharata is hardly a mono-culture. So the word "racist" isn't quite correct anyhow.)
Someone once said to me "Women can't drive. My mom even said so." I said, "All that proves is that your mom is sexist."
OP may not have intended to be racist, sure, but being racist out of ignorance (or just not having thought it through) is still ugly.
> But it's still "racist" to say "Indians can't drive."
Sorry, I think you're reading something into GP's post that just isn't there.
What I got from GP's post was because of low standards of drive testing, weak or non-existent enforcement of traffic laws, a general lack of education on how to drive safely, drivers on roads in India are generally unsafe. Having once been one of those drivers myself, I agree wholeheartedly. I don't think GP ever said or implied anything like what you think. If India were to adopt higher licensing standards and better traffic enforcement (in addition to better roads, signage, signaling equipment etc), I'm quite certain the quality of our driving, and our fatality numbers would improve over time.
> I know what you mean about driving in India. I watch video of Indian traffic. It's fascinating.
It's not "fascinating", it's horrifying. People blithely zooming around, always a hairsbreadth from tragedy, all for very little gain. It breaks my heart to see it whenever I go back home for a visit.
> I live in CA, and I've met a lot of folks from India and they seem to drive here just fine.
I was one of those folks (don't live in CA anymore). I learned how to drive better after coming to the US. The reason all the Indian people you know drive fine is because they learned (or re-learned) driving in the US and have gone through American licensing tests.
Sorry, I think you're reading something into GP's post that just isn't there.
What I got from GP's post was because of low standards of drive testing, weak or non-existent enforcement of traffic laws, a general lack of education on how to drive safely, drivers on roads in India are generally unsafe. Having once been one of those drivers myself, I agree wholeheartedly. I don't think GP ever said or implied anything like what you think. If India were to adopt higher licensing standards and better traffic enforcement (in addition to better roads, signage, signaling equipment etc), I'm quite certain the quality of our driving, and our fatality numbers would improve over time.
> I know what you mean about driving in India. I watch video of Indian traffic. It's fascinating.
It's not "fascinating", it's horrifying. People blithely zooming around, always a hairsbreadth from tragedy, all for very little gain. It breaks my heart to see it whenever I go back home for a visit.
> I live in CA, and I've met a lot of folks from India and they seem to drive here just fine.
I was one of those folks (don't live in CA anymore). I learned how to drive better after coming to the US. The reason all the Indian people you know drive fine is because they learned (or re-learned) driving in the US and have gone through American licensing tests.
You know what? I went back and checked and the actual sentence was: "In India, drivers don't know what safe driving is."
I think you're right, I read something into GP's post that isn't there. That could just be describing the traffic situation and NOT claiming some racist trope.
Oops. Sorry raincom, jogjayr, all!
> It's not "fascinating", it's horrifying.
I agree, I apologize for trivializing it.
I think you're right, I read something into GP's post that isn't there. That could just be describing the traffic situation and NOT claiming some racist trope.
Oops. Sorry raincom, jogjayr, all!
> It's not "fascinating", it's horrifying.
I agree, I apologize for trivializing it.
Indian drivers don’t fail DMV tests because they know the right course of action but consciously ignore it while driving in India (a complete lack of civic sense).
This is essentially the broken window theory manifesting itself in all of India’s major cities.
I lived in India during my childhood and thought nothing of the lack of safety on the roads.
Then I moved to the UK and learned how to drive in the UK. When I went back to India, I felt terrified on the roads.
For example, in the UK you wait for a roundabout to become clear before joining. In India, you speed up before joining the roundabout, in the hope that others will allow you in! If you don't have enough speed or aggression, they won't let you into the roundabout. It's very risky, but no-one seems to care!
Then I moved to the UK and learned how to drive in the UK. When I went back to India, I felt terrified on the roads.
For example, in the UK you wait for a roundabout to become clear before joining. In India, you speed up before joining the roundabout, in the hope that others will allow you in! If you don't have enough speed or aggression, they won't let you into the roundabout. It's very risky, but no-one seems to care!
Having been exposed to more sane systems I can't begin to think how the Indian system can improve.
- Bad reckless drivers who don't know any better.
- Bad road design. Gurgaon has an expressway running through the city, whose exits and entrance were designed by a madman.
- Unsafe vehicles. Seltos sold in India has a 2 star child safety rating. Same car in Australia is a 5 star.
- Culture of fatalism. "My life is not in my hand, but in God's hand".
- Bad reckless drivers who don't know any better.
- Bad road design. Gurgaon has an expressway running through the city, whose exits and entrance were designed by a madman.
- Unsafe vehicles. Seltos sold in India has a 2 star child safety rating. Same car in Australia is a 5 star.
- Culture of fatalism. "My life is not in my hand, but in God's hand".
The fatalism culture is probably one of the biggest problems to overcome. A family member told me of witnessing a terrible car accident in Bahrain and the first thing which happened, instead of tending to the wounded, was to get down a pray. The vital moments where a life could be saved are replaced by religious acts asking a deity to help. To a westerner this seemed absurd!
One big lesson that India needs to learn from saner countries is consistent and impartial law enforcement. I am not talking about just traffic deaths, but across all problems. India has to get that right first, and then all the other problems will solve themselves.
Delhi has started rolling out traffic cameras in more places (most notably in farther south Delhi) and Uber drivers have been noticeably careful to not speed in these places. They have local apps telling them all the spots the speed cameras now already though (that was fast)
Consistent and impartial law enforcement is rare. You are probably counting America among “saner countries” but I can tell you that numerous cities, particularly west coast cities that are practicing “restorative justice” or declare themselves as a “sanctuary city”, are definitely not practicing consistent, impartial, or sane law enforcement.
What India is experiencing is more of a general lack of law enforcement period rather than partiality. In poorer countries this is especially true for “low level” crimes - like littering. Although it is fashionable for social justice types to decry “broke windows theory” it is definitely real in countries like India, where the allowance of some crimes really sets a broad cultural tone that numerous crimes can be excused or overlooked or normalized.
What India is experiencing is more of a general lack of law enforcement period rather than partiality. In poorer countries this is especially true for “low level” crimes - like littering. Although it is fashionable for social justice types to decry “broke windows theory” it is definitely real in countries like India, where the allowance of some crimes really sets a broad cultural tone that numerous crimes can be excused or overlooked or normalized.
I don't know the ground reality of how things work in USA. The impression I get is that it is better than India. In my experience, western Europe gets it right. When I wrote about impartiality, I was referring to how Indian govt. officials get a free pass for all kinds of activities ranging from inconsiderate to criminal.
maybe
- economy
I can attribute most developing world to economy. Once you have enough money, everything changes.
I can attribute most developing world to economy. Once you have enough money, everything changes.
Quite low considering India has 22% of world's population.
The article says India has 1% of cars globally, but otherwise doesn’t list any other stats for context. Miles driven would be nice to know, but total population isn’t helpful since a country can be very populous but have very few cars and that would skew things
>> The article says India has 1% of cars globally
I find them referencing the number of cars as very suspect. I know from other studies that the majority of road deaths in India involve passenger busses. There are far more people travelling by bus than private car. And when a bus crashes it is a much larger incident. After the busses are all the two-wheeled vehicle crashes. So them talking about car statistics, which are a minority on most Indian roads, seems out of place.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/why-roads-share-bl...
I find them referencing the number of cars as very suspect. I know from other studies that the majority of road deaths in India involve passenger busses. There are far more people travelling by bus than private car. And when a bus crashes it is a much larger incident. After the busses are all the two-wheeled vehicle crashes. So them talking about car statistics, which are a minority on most Indian roads, seems out of place.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/why-roads-share-bl...
You'd also have to account for scooters and such.
It’s a good point, but it’s people that die, not cars. Pedestrians, scooter drivers and bus passengers are going to make up a portion of the deaths too.
The USA has 20x more motor vehicles per capita than India [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_...
Well, the US is also an outlier in its own right.
17.7%* https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=pop+india+%2F+world+po...
but still...
but still...
Distance driven is probably the broadest metric one can use to compare here.
The Indian taxation system is partly to blame. It encourages sub-standard and very unsafe cars. I hear almost everything associated with vehicles is taxed to the high heavens and manufacturers skimp on safety to make the cars affordable to the middle class who anyway are taxed like crazy. As a consequence the most popular cars are the most unsafe with 0 star ratings in crash tests.
Taxation has nothing to do with it. Indian drivers are reckless. Crash tests are useless when Indian drivers are running over people.
> Taxation has nothing to do with it.
> Indian drivers are reckless.
I will assume it's a bit of both. Especially if your car is worth $5, most people will treat it as such. And they will perform maintenance service worth 25 cents.
I was in Bangalore/Bangaluru some years back. I have only seen worse driving in Egypt! (imagine Carmageddon II grade driving)
Regarding the cars, I remember that Tata wanted to bring their car to the world, except for the fact that it was a coffin with wheels [0].
"Rohit Baluja, President of India’s Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) said: “These results show that India would benefit enormously from the introduction of minimum crash safety standards..."
A country that doesn't have "minimum crash safety standards" simply does not care for its citizens, whether they lived or died. Article is from 2014.
[0]: http://www.globalncap.org/tata-nano-offers-zero-star-safety-...
I will assume it's a bit of both. Especially if your car is worth $5, most people will treat it as such. And they will perform maintenance service worth 25 cents.
I was in Bangalore/Bangaluru some years back. I have only seen worse driving in Egypt! (imagine Carmageddon II grade driving)
Regarding the cars, I remember that Tata wanted to bring their car to the world, except for the fact that it was a coffin with wheels [0].
"Rohit Baluja, President of India’s Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) said: “These results show that India would benefit enormously from the introduction of minimum crash safety standards..."
A country that doesn't have "minimum crash safety standards" simply does not care for its citizens, whether they lived or died. Article is from 2014.
[0]: http://www.globalncap.org/tata-nano-offers-zero-star-safety-...
Tata now though have better safety standards cars than other manufactures some global ones in India.
For the sake of everyone on this planet, I surely hope they do. But living in Europe, and reading something like that in 2014, it will be VERY difficult to change my mind and ignore so many other car producers with (far better) safety record for a Tata. I would prefer to buy a used 2010 VW Golf for e.g. $3k than a brand new Tata for $3k.
Either way, I am very interested (as I believe we all are) to see how all gas/petrol cars will be replaced by electric in the next 20 years. And with the rise of technology, sensors, self-driving and other functionalities (e.g. cars tracking one-another in real time) we will care 'less' for crash-related safety, if we see that crashes are drastically reduced.
Then we can have lighter and faster cars, with more comfort.
Either way, I am very interested (as I believe we all are) to see how all gas/petrol cars will be replaced by electric in the next 20 years. And with the rise of technology, sensors, self-driving and other functionalities (e.g. cars tracking one-another in real time) we will care 'less' for crash-related safety, if we see that crashes are drastically reduced.
Then we can have lighter and faster cars, with more comfort.
Nano has been discontinued. All the latest Tata cars have global ncap 4/5 rating. Whats disappointing is that foreign brands like like VW, Ford don't have 4/5 stars ncap rating cars in india.
There are countries that crash test pedestrian safety in crashes before certifying vehicles for sale; that wouldn't be useless here. Neither India not the US for that matter do so though.
If cars were cheaper due to less taxes, people would just pocket the savings instead of spending on safety features. Seatbelts are standard in all modern cars, yet many don't even wear them. Imagine if they were optional too.
You need regulation --- and more importantly enforcement --- to improve any road safety culture here.
You need regulation --- and more importantly enforcement --- to improve any road safety culture here.
If you come to Indian road, you will be surprised why its not much higher.
The annoying habbit of incessant honking is surprisingly effective though - I've found it safer to bike in India than the US (statistically verified in terms of crashes). At least it would be if you don't account for stray dog who chase you for fun.
Honking is encouraged during driving lessons. Many drivers rely on the fact that overtaking vehicles honk as they pass by - the mirrors of many Indian vehicles have too many blind spots, so noise is more reliable. This is also encouraged when coming around a blind curve.
A big part of Shantaram is how car accidents were punished by riot. Apparently crashing into pedestrians could get you and your passengers beaten to death by a mob. Any truth to this?
Having spent all my childhood in India, I'm inclined to say yes.
Unlike North America's overall individualism, Indian society, in large part relies on a strong sense of community (based either on religion or class). (Of course, there is more nuance to it, and I concede that my statement is, to some extent, an oversimplification.) A direct consequence of this communal feeling then is a mob mentality that is not afraid to play vigilante. The vigilante part is only exacerbated in the absence of a fair policing and judicial system.
There have been multiple cases [1],[2] where a mob has taken matters into their own hands either out of a collective sympathy for the victim [1] or a collective animosity toward the driver [3]. There are many more instances one can find, and at the risk of sounding political, crashing into a cow will get you into more trouble than crashing into people.
[1] https://www.ndtv.com/patna-news/bihar-3-children-sleeping-on...
[2] https://www.ndtv.com/cities/driver-beaten-to-death-after-tru...
[3] https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/auto-driver-beate...
There have been multiple cases [1],[2] where a mob has taken matters into their own hands either out of a collective sympathy for the victim [1] or a collective animosity toward the driver [3]. There are many more instances one can find, and at the risk of sounding political, crashing into a cow will get you into more trouble than crashing into people.
[1] https://www.ndtv.com/patna-news/bihar-3-children-sleeping-on...
[2] https://www.ndtv.com/cities/driver-beaten-to-death-after-tru...
[3] https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/auto-driver-beate...
The headline would than have said that equal number were killed by mob because of the accident!
Old Joke:
In India you have to watch both sides while crossing a one way street.
Not a joke, my friend got a knocked out point blank by a car on a road that supposes to be one way street in front of his university. Apparently during the time of the accident the one way road became two way road due to the constructions work. He survived the gruesome accident but still living in pain intermittently for example if sitting too long due to his permanent spine injury.
Which side of the road do they drive on in Egypt? The shaded side.
True in NYC too. I almost gotten taken out by a cop car driving the wrong way down a narrow one-way street, of all things. It wasn't even running its siren!
yeah, no wonder. you know there isnt a culture of "traffic lights" beyond major cities and high traffic intersections. Usually you will have a guy waving his hands but thats about it.
where there are traffic lights, common knowledge is "red light means look for a traffic cop and go if no one was seen around".
coupled that with majority of cars having no safety features. do you know just last year or so the govt enforced standard airbags for front passengers in all cars because until then it was "optional" and used to cost a lot of money. Now they just added to the basic cost but just that. https://www.autocarindia.com/car-news/front-passenger-airbag...
As far as i know, the bulk of cars being sold in india, the very cheap ones dont even offer something like side airbags.
where there are traffic lights, common knowledge is "red light means look for a traffic cop and go if no one was seen around".
coupled that with majority of cars having no safety features. do you know just last year or so the govt enforced standard airbags for front passengers in all cars because until then it was "optional" and used to cost a lot of money. Now they just added to the basic cost but just that. https://www.autocarindia.com/car-news/front-passenger-airbag...
As far as i know, the bulk of cars being sold in india, the very cheap ones dont even offer something like side airbags.
The article uses the term "lakh", which seems to be an Indian numbering unit equal to a hundred thousand/100 000/1e5. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh
I've been to Thiruvananthapuram, which has a low rate of fatality of traffic accidents compared to the rest of India but they make up for it on volume.
I have never been more scared in a car in regular traffic in my life.
What's surprising is that the people there didn't seem to see it as a problem.
I have never been more scared in a car in regular traffic in my life.
What's surprising is that the people there didn't seem to see it as a problem.
If you are scared to death in Thiruvananthapuram, then a grand world awaits you in the rest of the country! Some trucks with very dim lights think that it is a bright idea to drive in the opposite direction at night.
It is not entirely fair to blame them - the "U-turns" provided in the highway are so tight that it might cause the truck to overturn - so they think it is worth the risk to go 2km in the other direction and then merge with traffic going in the right way.
It is not entirely fair to blame them - the "U-turns" provided in the highway are so tight that it might cause the truck to overturn - so they think it is worth the risk to go 2km in the other direction and then merge with traffic going in the right way.
I tried to drive in India on the highway after 15+ years living in the US. The highway was mostly empty, I was beginning to gain confidence and upped the speed (barely close to what I'm used to driving here). Out of nowhere, a truck came hurtling down in the opposite direction on the exact lane I was driving in. Had I not been alert, my entire family would have been decimated. Immediately handed the wheel back to my FIL.
I've been to India many times, and the driving there really is atrocious.
One time I went during the monsoon, and it was downright terrifying - road drainage is terrible, and drivers don't seem to alter their driving behaviour at all. In the space of 2 weeks, I lost count of the number of small accidents I saw, saw the results of multiple more serious accidents (including a body at the side of the road), saw 1 accident happen in front of me that would have led to serious injuries at best, and on a trip from Mumbai to Pune saw the results of dozens of terrible accidents, in the form of husks of mangled car and truck frames.
This was around 2008 - I returned to India many times afterwards, but refused to go during the monsoon.
One time I went during the monsoon, and it was downright terrifying - road drainage is terrible, and drivers don't seem to alter their driving behaviour at all. In the space of 2 weeks, I lost count of the number of small accidents I saw, saw the results of multiple more serious accidents (including a body at the side of the road), saw 1 accident happen in front of me that would have led to serious injuries at best, and on a trip from Mumbai to Pune saw the results of dozens of terrible accidents, in the form of husks of mangled car and truck frames.
This was around 2008 - I returned to India many times afterwards, but refused to go during the monsoon.
Protip for anybody visiting India. Uber and Ola don’t really offer anything fancy as far as cabs go, but it’s important to choose the higher end options “Uber premier” to get the more “vetted” drivers. UberGo drivers are often newer and more reckless, and drive cars that are closer to a rickshaw with doors than sedans. UberXL doesn’t really offer much improvement either as drivers still lean towards newer or sleep deprived.
I wish either Uber or Ola would try to offer an option in all the major cities offering new Honda or Toyota cars with drivers that have been trained and tested by company staff, but it seems like government cab aggregator policies wouldn’t allow the companies to be so involved with these details
I wish either Uber or Ola would try to offer an option in all the major cities offering new Honda or Toyota cars with drivers that have been trained and tested by company staff, but it seems like government cab aggregator policies wouldn’t allow the companies to be so involved with these details
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Two accidents in the last few days, both involving tourists:
[1] 14 killed at 4 Am in Kurnool District in the state of Andhra Pradesh. 18 people were in mini bus, heading to Ajmer in Rajasthan from Madanapalli.
[2] 8 killed in Araku valley region near Vizag, and at midnight.
During the day time, many accidents involve 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers. At night, it involves travelers: tourists and regular travelers between major cities.
[1] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/14-dead-four-injured-in-andh... [2] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/eight...
During the day time, many accidents involve 2-wheelers and 3-wheelers. At night, it involves travelers: tourists and regular travelers between major cities.
[1] https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/14-dead-four-injured-in-andh... [2] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/visakhapatnam/eight...
Taxi-Jeeps (intercity and inter-suburban) accounts for a lot of these fatalities. For them, 1) The more the passengers per trip the more the money and 2) The more the trips per day, the more the money. A deadly combination of reckless driving with overloaded vehicles.
They also account for 17.7% of global population.
... but only 1% of the world's vehicles
As well as the sister comment mentioning distance driven as a relevant metric, some other aspects to consider are — if they only have a smaller ratio of car owners, I'd suspect there are less "car only" roads like motorways. Roads in city centres are also shared with a much higher ratio of foot traffic or people on bicycles/rickshaws etc.
The relevant metric is distance driven.
No kidding. Surprised it’s not higher. I ride a 1200cc motorbike, but not in India. A 100cc Honda on those roads with no rules, terrible surfaces and lighting, and, the main one for me, no trust in other road users to ever, ever, consider my well-being: Terrifying. I’ve done it, a lot, but I’ve fallen off a lot too.
I have driven in quite a few countries but I don't think I would ever drive in India. Maybe in a very rural area with little traffic but as soon as there is some level of traffic it just looks terrifying and chaotic.
I think there are far two many variables to make much of this. The demographics, population density, ratios of vehicle types, road conventions, attitudes toward risk.
Still, its a startling figure for a country with so few total vehicles.
Still, its a startling figure for a country with so few total vehicles.
I get associations to The Seatbelt Crew from 2014 ⌘ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muCU6_Y_Kyo
So much so that the lockdown actually saved more lives because people weren't dying on roads.
Also overloaded scooters with no helmets.
Helmet wont do you any good when you fall right under the truck and your head gets popped like a watermelon, there are tens if not hundreds of video clips like that from India.
Lmao 18% of the world's population live in India
Duh... India has 15% of the world's population.
11 percent of global road accident deaths is far less than the 17.5% of world population it represents, so it is safer than average.
Most of this is probably due to gridlock, it’s hard for Indian traffic to reach speeds sufficiently fast to cause terminal injury.
Most of this is probably due to gridlock, it’s hard for Indian traffic to reach speeds sufficiently fast to cause terminal injury.
While gridlocks do bring down average driving speeds in big cities, reckless driving when not in gridlocks is far too common. My own house is in a residential area, and yet, I hear drivers constantly honking while zipping by. Moreover, it does not take much speed to run over somebody.
The article starts with
> With only 1 per cent of the world's vehicles, India accounts for 11 per cent of the global death in road accidents
so it's 11 times higher than expected.
> With only 1 per cent of the world's vehicles, India accounts for 11 per cent of the global death in road accidents
so it's 11 times higher than expected.
The road accidents figure likely includes pedestrians, and in the least it includes people in tuk tuk/rickshaws, scooters, mopeds, motorcycles, etc. these aren’t roads with a high frequency of cars hitting cars at high speeds.
My back-of-the-napkin math is the following:
7.6B human beings on the planet
1.4B vehicles in total [0]
India: 57M vehicles, 1.36B people [1]
India should represent 57M / 1.4B = 4% of road accidents. Instead, it represents 11%, so almost 3 times as high as the world average.
[0]: https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-advice/how-many-cars-are-th...
[01]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicles_...