The call came at a roundtable on September 24 organised by the Road Safety Network, seven years after the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act came into force. The report Road Accidents in India 2024 recorded 487,707 crashes and 471,441 injuries alongside the death toll.
Participants from IIT-Delhi, NIMHANS, Parisar and CrashFree India argued that safety cannot depend on road users alone. Professor Geetam Tiwari said streets should account for pedestrians, cyclists and two-wheelers, with 30 km/h as a reference speed in places where vulnerable users mix closely with traffic. She pointed to speed tables and rumble strips, particularly near schools and busy pedestrian areas.
Parisar’s Ranjit Gadgil called for continuous, clearly marked pedestrian routes and stronger implementation by state and local authorities. Other speakers highlighted municipal capacity and Section 198A of the Act, which concerns compliance with road-design, construction and maintenance standards.
NIMHANS’s Gautham Melur Sukumar focused on what happens after a crash: coordination between emergency services, ambulances, hospitals and rehabilitation providers. He called for consistent emergency-medical training, trauma-capacity mapping, stronger ambulance regulation and better crash data.