Cyrus Mistry’s death has fuelled a conversation around road safety in India
India lost more than 155,000 lives in road crashes in 2021, the highest ever. There is unlikely to be a major reduction this year.
The death of Cyrus Mistry, one of India’s best-known business leaders, yesterday (Sept. 04) has also made it amply clear that the distinction between the rich and poor is lost in this category of tragedies.
Prime minister Narendra Modi’s minister Gopinath Munde died in one such accident in the heart of the national capital in 2014. Popular comedian Jaspal Bhatti met with a similar fate in 2012.
The details of the incident that killed 54-year-old Mistry, the head of the construction and real estate conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji Group and a former chairman of Tata Sons, are still seeping in.
However, it has brought back the spotlight on road accidents in India, which, with a mere 1% of the world’s vehicles, accounts for about 10% of all crash-related deaths, according to the World Bank.
Interestingly, while the number of such deaths peaked last year, that of road crashes came down, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
India’s deadly roads
In 2021, India witnessed an average of 18 deaths per hour due to road accidents, NCRB data show. The data further highlighted that public transport, like buses, was safer than private modes of conveyance.
