Road crashes claimed a little over 1.8 lakh lives in 2025, translating into 502 deaths per day, which is the maximum since govt started collating data. While the highest increase in such fatalities was reported in Uttar Pradesh — from 24,118 in 2024 to 27,550 last year — Punjab saw a major dip in road deaths — from 4,759 in 2024 to 3,062 last year.Data that the road transport ministry provided to Lok Sabha on Thursday show that road crashes shot up by 5.3% to over 5.1 lakh in 2025 and fatalities increased by 3.5%. Ministry’s written reply indicates that 18 states and UTs saw a rise in road deaths in 2025 while 17 others reported a decline. Significantly, Lakshadweep has not reported any road death in the past two years.
Death tol lrises
Ministry said data for West Bengal, which reported fewer number of fatalities in road crashes, have been taken from eDAR records as of Jan 2, 2026, while in the case of all others, data have been taken from eDAR records as of July 22. The e-Detailed Accident Report (eDAR) is a digital central accident database management system designed to analyse causes of crashes and devise safety measures. Officials said the overall number of fatalities may increase when the data for West Bengal is updated.Experts say the rise in road deaths despite efforts of govt to bring them down indicates that the current strategies have not proven that effective, even in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Assam where non-profit organisations in the sector have collaborated with local govts.On Wednesday, the ministry had informed Rajya Sabha that 6,358 “black corridors” on the National Highway (NH) network were identified during 2023-25, which recorded 37,164 deaths. The maximum such black corridors were in Tamil Nadu (958), followed by UP (671) and Karnataka (607). Among districts, Viluppuram in Tamil Nadu had a maximum of 70 such corridors.As per ministry, unlike isolated black spots, these corridors are continuous stretches of NH that have recorded a higher number of road crashes that led to fatalities and grievous injuries. The identification is expected to help the authorities prioritise engineering interventions and improve road safety outcomes, officials said.
