Indian roads are deadliest for pedestrians, two-wheeler riders

Indian roads are increasingly becoming more dangerous for its most vulnerable users, an IndiaSpend analysis of national data shows. In a decade to 2023, road accident deaths increased 24% to about 173,000, but pedestrian deaths nearly tripled, those of two-wheeler riders nearly doubled, and cyclist deaths rose 13%.

In particular, two-wheeler deaths rose from accounting for 30% of all deaths in 2014 to 45% by 2023. Overall, every hour in 2014, India saw about five deaths of two-wheeler riders on average. This rose to about nine deaths per hour by 2023, the latest year for which data are available from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

In contrast, every other category of road users – cars and jeeps, trucks, buses and autorickshaws – saw fewer deaths in 2023 when compared to 2014.

This decrease signifies some improvement overall, considering that the number of highways and vehicles keeps increasing, said Ranjit Gadgil, Program Director at Parisar. “But this puts a sharper focus on vulnerable road users like pedestrians and motorcyclists,” he explained.

Gadgil pointed to three factors for the increase in two-wheeler fatalities: First, the sheer number of people relying on two-wheelers. In 2022, the latest year for which data are available, two-wheelers accounted for 74% of vehicles registered across India. “The WHO [World Health Organization] has actually pointed out that countries should try to reduce dependence on risky modes of transport like this,” he added.

Secondly, helmet use is still a major gap. “To be fully protected, the rider and pillion both need good-quality, ISI-marked helmets that are properly strapped on. Most people don't tick all three boxes,” Gagdil explained.

And third, speed is a huge factor. “Once a two-wheeler crosses 40 or 50 kilometres per hour, any crash is likely to cause severe injury or worse. A crash at that speed could easily be fatal,” he said.

India's rising incomes and inadequate public transport options have accelerated private vehicle use, as per a 2021 study in the journal Springer Nature. Two-wheelers, as we said, accounted for 74% of all registered vehicles in 2022, up from 71% two decades ago.

Registered two-wheelers increased from about 139 million in 2014 to 263 million in 2022. Concurrently, the number of registered four-wheelers rose from 26 million to 49 million.

This surge in two-wheeler ownership reflects persistent gaps in affordable and reliable public transit, forcing millions–especially in rural and peri-urban areas–to depend on two-wheelers for daily mobility, according to experts like Gadgil. The resulting increase in unprotected road users combined with rising congestion has heightened safety risks across both urban and rural road networks.

“The use of two-wheelers to carry children is increasing because affordable bus transport for long distances is often unavailable,” said Geetam Tiwari, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre, Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. “If safe bicycle and pedestrian paths to schools are not provided, parents tend to rely on two-wheelers to transport their children. For school-going children, bus transport should ideally be free, given the significant social benefits it provides.”

Another cohort that has seen the rise of two-wheeler use is gig workers and delivery partners for India's booming online food and grocery industry. As of March this year, quick commerce platforms Blinkit and Swiggy together had an estimated 724,000 delivery partners.

Drivers are under constant pressure to meet delivery time limits, Tiwari said, explaining, “that's why we see them taking shortcuts just to meet deadlines.” These unrealistic time targets are a huge safety concern and need to be regulated, she added.

We reached out to Zomato and Swiggy for comment on how they ensure driver safety. “Our processes are designed to prioritise safety over speed,” Shweta Dutt, corporate communications manager at Zomato, told IndiaSpend.

Riders complete a mandatory road safety module, are told not to overspeed or break traffic rules, and are not penalised for delays, she added. Partners are provided health and accident insurance and have access to ambulance assistance and rest points nationwide.

Rural India accounts for a majority of road accident deaths (69%) – up from 59% a decade ago, our analysis of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways data shows. This is associated with a rise in the share of accidents – from 54% in 2019 to 61% in 2023.

Higher death rates in rural regions are driven by faster driving speeds, poor helmet compliance, weaker enforcement, and limited access to trauma care. On the other hand, the lack of adequate public transport in cities leads to crowding in the bus and rail systems, and people are forced to choose auto rickshaws, two-wheelers, private taxis and cars leading to congestion on roads, as per a 2023 study from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

These contrasting risk patterns underline the need for differentiated road safety strategies – enhancing trauma response and enforcement in rural areas while addressing congestion management and gig-worker safety in urban environments, according to this World Bank report from 2020.

Disaggregated data on type of vehicle for rural and urban areas are not available, but since 2019, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reports include classification of road accidents in 50 Indian cities with populations of more than 1 million. Here too, the trends are similar: In 2023, two-wheeler riders, cyclists and pedestrians accounted for 74% road accident deaths, up from 59% in 2019.

Of about 75,000 Indian two-wheeler riders or pillion riders who died in 2023, 73% did not wear a helmet, data show. “Unlike four-wheelers, the only globally recognised safety measure for two-wheeler users is wearing a helmet – and not just any helmet, but one that is of good quality and correctly strapped,” Geetam Tiwari said.

“Wearing an improperly strapped or poor-quality helmet is almost as risky as not wearing one at all,” she added. “Even with a properly worn helmet, its effectiveness reduces risk of fatal injury only by about 30% to 40%; the rest of the body remains unprotected, making two-wheeler travel inherently high-risk, especially at higher speeds.”

Ideally, helmet mandates should apply to bicyclists too, she said, but at the very least, any electric two-wheeler or small engine bike should require helmets.

In 2023, about 10% of accidents involved drivers without a valid license or those holding a learner's license. Many licensed riders, however, still lack adequate road safety training due to weak enforcement and minimal skill-based evaluations.

“India's current two-wheeler licensing system prioritises procedural issuance over competence and safety readiness,” said Piyush Tewari, founder and CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation, an independent non-profit focussed on improving road safety and emergency medical care. “Most licence holders have never undergone formal rider training, and existing tests are limited to basic manoeuvres conducted in controlled environments.”

Unlike countries such as Singapore, which follow multi-tiered licensing with graded training based on engine capacity India's one-size-fits-all approach leaves novice and untrained riders highly vulnerable, he explained.

In 2023, 66% of road deaths were on straight highway stretches–where vehicle speeds tend to be high. Over half the deaths occurred in “open” areas, which “normally do not have any human activities in the vicinity”.

Overspeeding was indicted in 68% of road accident deaths, and wrong-side driving or lane indiscipline led to 5% deaths, data show. “Over-speeding often happens because people drive at speeds they feel comfortable with rather than following limits,” Geetam Tiwari said.

In order to enforce lower speeds – like 30–50 kmph – roads themselves need to be designed differently, especially near schools, with narrower lanes, textured surfaces, and speed humps, she explained. “Simply putting up speed limit signs isn't enough, since wide, smooth, straight roads encourage speeding.”

In rural and peri-urban areas, the surge in traffic volume, particularly at access-controlled expressways intersecting with villages, raises conflict points and subsequently the number of crashes near villages increases, says Karuna Raina, director of public policy & research at SaveLIFE Foundation, told us in January 2025. “Moreover, while the design speeds for these roads are high, the corresponding road infrastructure – such as safety features, signage, lane markings, lighting and barriers – is often inadequate.”

Single-vehicle crashes are a major issue for two-wheelers, often caused by slipping or hitting roadside objects, and account for about 20%-22% of two-wheeler fatalities, highlighting the need to rethink road design, Geetam Tiwari said.

Gadgil pointed to several gaps in road safety data. “For one, there's a big delay – just look at the 2023 report; it's only coming out now, even though the government has been digitising data for years.

“There's also limited flexibility in the way the data is released. Right now, reports give fixed categories, like fatalities for ages 0–18, but if you want to break it down further – say, 0-4, 5-12, or 12-18 – you can't. This matters for policy, like child restraint laws, where knowing exact age groups is critical. The data exists when accidents are recorded, but it isn't shared in a usable way. There's also the bigger issue of reliability – if what's recorded is wrong, the output will be wrong,” he continued.

Working-age adults continue to be the most affected demographic in two-wheeler fatalities. In 2023, individuals aged 18-45 accounted for 66.4% of all road deaths. The vast majority of victims (85%) were male, reflecting the profile of commercial riders, gig workers, and young commuters who rely on two-wheelers for livelihood and mobility. This concentration of deaths among productive age groups translates into significant socio-economic losses, highlighting the urgency of targeted road safety interventions for these high-risk populations.

Reducing road-accident deaths and injuries by 50% and sustaining it over a period of 24 years could generate an additional flow of income equivalent to 14% of India's 2014 gross domestic product (Rs 125 lakh crore or $2.03 trillion), as IndiaSpend reported in February 2020 based on a January 2018 study by the World Bank.

The government uses only police data to report road accident fatalities, ignoring sources such as hospitals, state and district level transport departments, as IndiaSpend reported in 2021. This makes it lopsided, experts say, because of the human and infrastructure resource shortages in police departments and biases among officials.

IndiaSpend reached out to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the Transport & Road Safety department for comment. We will update this story when we receive a response.

This article first appeared on IndiaSpend, a data-driven and public-interest journalism non-profit.

Source: Scroll
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