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 percent to about 173,000, but pedestrian deaths nearly tripled, those of two-wheeler riders nearly doubled, and cyclist deaths rose 13 percent.
In particular, two-wheeler deaths rose from accounting for 30 percent of all deaths in 2014 to 45 percent 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.
