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Road crashes remain one of the leading causes of death in India and are an escalating public health emergency. In 2022, the country recorded a staggering 461,312 road crashes, resulting in 1,68,491 fatalities, a 9.4% increase in fatalities from the previous year.

Introduction 

In 2022, India recorded 461,312 road accidents, resulting in 168,491 fatalities and leaving 443,366 people injured, marking notable increases of 11.9%, 9.4%, and 15.3% respectively compared to the previous year.

Introduction 

Air pollution isn’t just an environmental issue, it’s a global health crisis that affects millions of lives every year. An estimated 6.7 million people die prematurely due to exposure to harmful pollutants, making it one of the deadliest threats we face today.

Chennai has a complex transportation system with a mix of buses, rail, metro, autos, taxis, and all the other private transport means. The public network systems, while vast, are not always tied in efficiently, meaning that commuters are often left with lags in their journeys as they switch modes (for example from a Metro train to a bus).

Teenagers or even younger children driving two-wheelers or cars on the road, often in school uniforms, or younger kids being picked up by their elder siblings in vehicles is nothing new in India. This is despite the law in India clearly stating that the legal driving age for most vehicles is 18 years. It is very unlikely that underage driving is spurred by a lack of knowledge of the law, as sometimes children far below 18 are found using motor vehicles.

India has seen a consistent rise in road crash fatalities, driven by expanding road networks and faster vehicles. In 2023 alone, Tamil Nadu recorded 18,347 road fatalities, with Chennai accounting for 504 of these deaths.

This article first appeared in Citizen Matters on January 11, 2025

Nearly 1 in 5 cars sold globally in 2023 were electric. Almost 14 million electric cars were registered globally in 2023, of which 95% were from China, USA and Europe. This translates to a 35% year on year increase compared to 2022. The numbers are a combination of both battery electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrid (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs).