Story in numbers: Killer roads, fatal rides cost India 5% of GDP every year

Road accidents cost India 3 to 5 per cent of GDP every year, and are avoidable if the country improves its roads and city planning, train its drivers better, and enforce traffic laws

India’s young, productive population, aged 18-45 years, is involved in 70% of road accidents, according to the data from Road Accidents in India, 2018, a report published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH).

Over 24 years from 2014 to 2038, if India could halve the deaths and injuries because of road traffic, its GDP could increase by 7%, a 2018 World Bank report said.

In 2018, India reported 467,044 road accidents, an increase of 0.5% from 464,910 in 2017, the MORTH data showed.

India has 1% of the world’s vehicles but accounts for 6% of road traffic accidents, according to a 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) report. As many as 73% of all deaths in road traffic accidents in 2018 in the South and Southeast Asia regions happened in India, it said. Road accidents are one of the 12 most common causes of deaths in India, the ninth most common cause of premature deaths, and the 10th most common reason for disability, according to the 2017 WHO Global Health Estimates.

In 2018, of all road deaths, the most were of those riding two-wheelers (36%), followed by pedestrians (15%), the MORTH data showed.