Where India dies on its roads
An analysis of 63 MoRTH report tables covering geography, road type, demographics, crash circumstances and time.
4.88L
reported crashes
1.77L
deaths
4.71L
injured
01 — Scale
Fatalities are rising faster than crashes
India's road deaths remain enormous — accidents grew 1.5% while fatalities grew 2.5% in 2024.
Crashes vs fatalities · 2020–2024
Fatalities per 100 reported crashes (close-up — zoomed axis)
Axis starts at 34, not zero — -0.9 pts since 2020.
Crash risk / lakh population · 2024
34.8
Death risk / lakh population · 2024
12.6
Crash rate / 10k vehicles · 2022
13
Death rate / 10k vehicles · 2022
4.8
02 — Geography
Road deaths are highly concentrated geographically
Deaths cluster in a handful of large states — and two-thirds of all fatalities happen in rural areas.
Deaths by state · 2024 — tap a state
All 36 states/UTs shaded — grey means no reported deaths in table 5.6.
70.8% of reported deaths are rural
Rural 1,25,422 (70.8%) · Urban 51,753 (29.2%) — denominator: reported deaths.
Top states by fatalities · 2024
03 — Roads
Some roads account for disproportionately more fatalities
National Highways carry a death share far above their crash share — the network matters as much as the traffic.
NHAI Highways Risk (Table 2.8)
49,675 deaths
76.7% of all NH fatalities occur on NHAI stretch
YoY Growth
+7.4% YoY
vs +0.4% on State PWD highways
Gap chip = fatality share minus crash share, in points. NH runs +5.6 pts hotter than its crash share.
04 — People
Young men on two wheels bear the heaviest toll
Road deaths have a distinct age-sex profile — and two-wheelers plus pedestrians dominate the victim mix.
Young adults make up a large share of road deaths
Age-sex profile of road fatalities · 2024 (female ← → male)
Two-wheelers and pedestrians dominate fatalities
81,780
Two-wheelers
46.2% of deaths
36,526
Pedestrians
20.6% of deaths
21,988
Cars, Taxis, Vans & LMVs
12.4% of deaths
Remaining road-user categories · 2024 (block size = deaths)
11,890
Other vehicles
9,687
Trucks
5,659
Auto rickshaws
4,161
Bicycles
3,855
Buses
1,629
E-rickshaw & non-motor
05 — Circumstances
Over-speeding is the largest recorded violation category
Recorded in 7 of every 10 road deaths. An association in charge-sheeted records — not proven cause.
ASSOCIATION ≠ CAUSATION
Violation categories describe what was recorded, not what caused the crash.
Traffic violations by persons killed · 2024
Killed · no helmet
54,122
Killed · no seatbelt
14,466
06 — Time
Evening hours account for the largest share of reported crashes
Risk has a season and an hour — May peaks, and the 18–21 window carries one in five crashes.
Crashes across 24 hours (all months combined — the report has no month × hour split; volume only)
1,02,897 (21.4% of crashes)
reported crashes, 18:00 to 21:00 hrs (Night)
Crash clock · 24 hours
Crash calendar · 2024 — tap a month
Shade is normalized (36,483–43,289).
07 — Cities
Delhi records the most road deaths of any million-plus city
City rankings by deaths, with fatalities per 100 crashes alongside.
Dot = fatalities per 100 reported crashes in that city (same table, so comparable).
08 — Global
India recorded the highest absolute road deaths among the countries shown
Above figures are MoRTH report table 8.3, which republishes 2023-vintage international counts — context, not a like-for-like comparison.
Context only — international reporting definitions and coverage differ.