Context:

• India recorded the world's highest number of road accident deaths in 2024, with official agencies reporting 1.75–1.81 lakh fatalities through different methodologies.
• The road accidents are preventable governance failures, not unavoidable tragedies, and calls for constitutional and institutional reforms to establish clear accountability for road safety.

India's Road Safety Crisis:

• Official data presents conflicting estimates: For example,
  • The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) shows that 1.77 lakh people lost their lives in road crashes.
  • National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) – Accidental Deaths and Suicides Report: 1.75 lakh deaths.
  • NCRB – Crime in India Report: 1.81 lakh deaths.
• The discrepancy of nearly 6,000 deaths reflects multiple reporting systems and methodologies, highlighting weaknesses in governance rather than merely statistical inconsistencies.
• Despite having a smaller share of the world's vehicles, India records the highest number of road fatalities globally, indicating systemic deficiencies.

Supreme Court's Constitutional Perspective:

• S.Rajaseekaran v. Union of India (2014): The Supreme Court examined road safety through the four Es -
  • Engineering: Poor road design and inadequate highway maintenance, receiving only 35–40% of the required funding.
  • Enforcement: Weak and inconsistent implementation of traffic laws.
  • Education: Limited public awareness and poor road safety culture.
  • Emergency care: Insufficient ambulances, lack of trauma centres, and delays caused by jurisdictional disputes among authorities.
• Road safety and Article 21:
  • The Court held that road accidents are preventable, resulting primarily from human and institutional failures rather than fate.
  • Since preventable deaths violate the Right to Life under Article 21, failure to create an effective road safety framework amounts to a constitutional failure of governance.

Constitutional Fragmentation - The Core Governance Challenge:

• India's constitutional distribution of powers fragments responsibility across multiple levels.
• For instance, in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution -
  • National Highways falls in the Union List.
  • State roads and Police – State List.
  • Motor vehicles – Concurrent List.
  • Public health – State List.
• Implications of this fragmentation:
  • Road crashes simultaneously involve several constitutional entries without an integrated authority.
  • As multiple agencies share responsibility, no institution is solely accountable for preventing future accidents.
  • Existing responses—committees, advisories and proposed boards—lack statutory authority and effective coordination.

Need for Constitutional and Institutional Reform:

• Road Safety Coordination Council:
  • Establish a constitutional body on the lines of the GST Council created through the 101st Constitutional Amendment Act.
  • The Council should facilitate cooperative federalism by enabling the Centre and States to jointly frame -
    • Road engineering standards.
    • Vehicle fitness norms.
    • Traffic enforcement protocols.
    • Emergency medical response.
    • Uniform fatality reporting systems.
• Amend the Seventh Schedule: Reallocate legislative powers to provide Parliament greater authority over road safety and traffic regulation. Reduce jurisdictional overlaps and strengthen national accountability.
• Statutory District Road Safety Committees: Parliament should enact legislation providing -
  • Clearly defined powers and responsibilities.
  • Regular monitoring and compliance mechanisms.
  • Accountability measures and consequences for States that fail to implement road safety norms effectively.

Why Existing Approaches Have Fallen Short?

• Numerous advisory committees have been constituted over the years, but they lack constitutional backing, binding decision-making powers, and institutional accountability.
• The judiciary has repeatedly intervened because executive and legislative responses have remained fragmented and inadequate.
• Sustainable improvement requires structural constitutional reform, not periodic judicial intervention.

Conclusion:

• India's road safety crisis is fundamentally a governance and constitutional challenge, not merely a transport issue.
• Preventable road deaths represent a failure to protect the Right to Life under Article 21.
• India needs constitutional and institutional reforms (on the lines of the GST Council) to create a coherent, nationwide road safety framework capable of significantly reducing preventable fatalities.