India Could Reduce Road Deaths by Up to 80% with Simple Engineering Fixes

K. K. Kapila, President‑Emeritus of the International Road Federation, warned that rapid urbanisation is outpacing the development of safe road infrastructure in many Indian cities. He noted that most urban crashes stem from everyday design shortcomings rather than the absence of high‑cost expressways.

Kapila cited international case studies showing that modest interventions—such as roundabouts, grade‑separated pedestrian walkways, traffic‑calming measures, enhanced street lighting, and crash‑worthy intersection geometry—can lower accident rates by anywhere between 20 and 80 percent.

These solutions are far cheaper than building flyovers or new highways, can be installed swiftly, and start delivering safety benefits immediately.

Nevertheless, Kapila acknowledged ongoing challenges: fragmented agency responsibilities, weak enforcement of traffic rules, complex retrofitting of existing streets, scattered financing mechanisms, insufficient crash statistics, limited post‑crash medical response, and resistance to allocating road space for pedestrians and cyclists.