Question 1

How many people die on Indian roads each year?

Accepted Answer

1,77,175 in 2024 — roughly one death every three minutes.

Question 2

What is the single biggest cause?

Accepted Answer

Over-speeding, behind 70.3 per cent of road accident deaths in 2024. Nothing else comes close.

Question 3

Who is dying?

Accepted Answer

66.1 per cent were aged between eighteen and forty-five, and 46.2 per cent were on two-wheelers.

Question 4

What does it cost the country?

Accepted Answer

The World Bank estimates road crashes cost India three to five per cent of GDP each year.

Question 5

Why does speed matter so much more than it feels like it should?

Accepted Answer

Stopping distance rises with the square of speed, not in step with it. Going half as fast again does not add half again to the distance — it roughly doubles it.

Question 6

What is the two-second rule?

Accepted Answer

Pick a fixed point ahead; when the vehicle in front passes it, you should not reach it for two seconds. At 40 km/h that is about 23 metres, at 80 about 45, at 120 about 67. In fog or heavy rain the training manual asks for nine seconds or more, not two — and a loaded vehicle needs more again.

Question 7

What is a blind spot and where is it on a truck?

Accepted Answer

The area the mirrors do not show. On a heavy vehicle it runs alongside the whole left flank and immediately behind — which is exactly where two-wheelers gather at a signal.

Question 8

Why is fatigue treated as seriously as alcohol?

Accepted Answer

Because it does the same thing to reaction time and judgement, and unlike alcohol the driver believes he can push through it. Sleep is the only cure; tea and a wash are a delay.

Question 9

What should be done at the scene of someone else's crash?

Accepted Answer

Warn oncoming traffic, call 112, and help if you can do so safely. The law protects a good samaritan from harassment for helping.

Question 10

Is defensive driving just driving slowly?

Accepted Answer

No. It is driving so that somebody else's mistake does not become your crash — space, position, scanning ahead and assuming the other vehicle will do the wrong thing.

Question 11

Does training actually change anything?

Accepted Answer

Most Indian drivers were never taught — they were shown, by a relative or an unlicensed instructor. Structured training is the difference between operating a vehicle and reading a road.

Road safety

01How many people die on Indian roads each year?

02What is the single biggest cause?

03Who is dying?

04What does it cost the country?

05Why does speed matter so much more than it feels like it should?

06What is the two-second rule?

07What is a blind spot and where is it on a truck?

08Why is fatigue treated as seriously as alcohol?

09What should be done at the scene of someone else's crash?

10Is defensive driving just driving slowly?

11Does training actually change anything?