India's roads became deadlier in 2024, with fatalities from road crashes rising to 177,175, a 2.5% increase from 172,890 in 2023, according to the latest Road Accidents in India 2024 report released by the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH).
The country recorded 487,707 road accidents during the year, up 1.5% from the previous year.
Averaged out, in 2024, India witnessed approximately 485 deaths every day and 20.2 deaths hourly compared to 473 such deaths in 2023, 19.7 deaths every 60 minutes.
Cities show little improvement, with Indian cities with a 50-million plus population reporting a marginal 0.4% reduction in road accident fatalities.
Despite the overall improvement, several major metros continued to account for a significant share of urban road trauma.
Hit-and-run cases recorded the sharpest rise in road fatalities in India in 2024, with deaths increasing by 9.0% year-on-year to 34,030, accounting for 19.2% of all road fatalities in the country.
Road safety improvements require systemic solutions based on evidence, not assumptions, experts said.
The report also recorded some improvements, with state highways seeing a 2.01% decline in accidents and a 0.41% decline in fatalities compared with 2023.
Several states reported a decrease in the total number of accidents compared to 2023, most notably Haryana (-6.3%), Gujarat (-4.7%), and Andhra Pradesh (-2.0%).
