Institutional Recklessness Fuelling Uttar Pradesh Road Safety Crisis

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state is facing a deepening road safety crisis driven not just by driver behaviour but systemic institutional failures, a leading road safety expert has told government officials.

Also Read:

1. Heavy Snowstorm Triggers Multi-Vehicle Crashes Across U.S. Midwest

2. Chandigarh Traffic Police Identify Five Major Crash-Prone Road Stretches for Safety Upgrade

3. Loughgall Road Closed After Morning Crash in Portadown

Speaking at a two-day road safety management workshop in Lucknow, organised by the Uttar Pradesh transport department, Rohit Baluja, president of the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), said that the state’s road accident toll reflects “comprehensive recklessness”, where multiple institutions fail simultaneously to uphold basic safety standards. 

According to Baluja, who addressed senior officials including the state transport chief, the root of Uttar Pradesh’s road safety crisis lies beyond driver errors.

He said investigations into crashes routinely blame motorists but do not examine underlying infrastructure or governance lapses such as:

• Damaged and poorly maintained roads
• Missing or faded road signage
• Inadequate road markings
• Lax vehicle fitness inspections
• Fragmented responsibility among agencies

“These issues reflect a failure of multiple departments not just drivers and when accidents occur, accountability disappears because each authority points elsewhere,” he told participants. 

The expert highlighted that accident investigations in India currently lack scientific rigour, often overlooking key environmental and mechanical factors that contribute to collisions.

Without stronger methodologies, he warned, real causes remain obscured and unresolved. 

Transport data presented at the workshop painted a grim picture: 46,052 road accidents were recorded in Uttar Pradesh in 2024, resulting in 24,118 deaths and thousands of injuries across the state’s road network. 

Additional national figures confirm that India as a whole has one of the world’s highest road fatality counts, with over 1.7 lakh deaths in more than 4.8 lakh accidents recorded in 2023, and dangerous driving behaviours, especially overspeeding and careless overtaking, major contributors to those deaths. 

Baluja told officials that the absence of well-defined responsibilities among agencies such as traffic enforcement, public works, and vehicle regulation departments compounds safety risks.

“One authority installs traffic signals, another paints markings, and a third manages signboards. When a crash happens, nobody takes ownership,” the expert said. 

He also criticised the current licensing system, urging stricter monitoring and quality control of driver testing to align with international best practices. 

Participants at the workshop, including officials from the Public Works Department (PWD), Regional Transport Offices (RTOs), and traffic enforcement agencies acknowledged that a centralised, scientific approach to road safety planning and crash investigation is urgently needed.

Experts stressed that systematic accident data collection, advanced crash reconstruction techniques, and coordinated enforcement strategies are essential to reducing crash rates, a shift from reactive blame to proactive prevention.

Road crashes in Uttar Pradesh and across India claim thousands of lives every year, affecting families, communities and the economy.

While driver behaviour remains a factor, experts now argue that institutional negligence and fragmented governance amplify risk and undermine long-term safety improvements.

For a state with rapidly expanding highways and urban traffic, tackling these systemic issues is critical to saving lives and building a safer transportation ecosystem.