Identifying the causes of road traffic accidents in India: An empirical investigation

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2038
• Published date: 01 May 2020
• Author: Devi Prasad Dash,Narayan Sethi,Aruna Kumar Dash
• Date: 01 May 2020

ACADEMIC PAPER

Identifying the causes of road traffic accidents in India: An

empirical investigation

Devi Prasad Dash

1

| Narayan Sethi

2

| Aruna Kumar Dash

3

1

Department of Economics and Public Policy,

IIM Rothak, Rothak, India

2

Department of Humanities and Social

Sciences, National Institute of Technology,

Rourkela, India

3

Department of Economics, IBS-Hyderabad,

IFHE University, Hyderabad, India

Correspondence

Devi Prasad Dash, Department of Economics

and Public Policy, IIM Rothak, Rothak,

Haryana, ?India.

Email:devi100.dash@gmail.com

This study utilizes data for the period 2006–2015 to estimate the determinants of

road fatality rates in the Indian states. We employ baseline regression, where the total

traffic fatalities, total traffic injuries, rural road fatalities, and urban road fatalities are

the functions of human errors in driving, weather conditions, and some control vari-

ables. This paper is exclusively focussed upon different sets of human-driven factors

in influencing the road fatality across the Indian states. Our empirical results show

that reckless driving, defective motor conditions, bad weather, and reckless driving by

bus, truck, and car drivers are found to cause road accidents. We further find that the

increase in motorization rates and rash driving are the primary causes behind the road

fatalities, and bad weather play a major role in causing road fatalities and injuries in

urban areas. However, road fatalities are increasing; still, cases of under reporting,

lack of proper road safety regulation, improper investigation procedures, increasing

vehicle usages, and higher urbanization have made the matters quite worse in India.

JEL CLASSIFICATION

C33; Road safety H00; I18; J10; J14

1|INTRODUCTION

Road traffic injuries are the leading reasons of mortality in the devel-

oping economies over the years and the biggest impediments to eco-

nomic growth and public health development. Low- and middle-

income economies globally constitute nearly 85% of the road deaths

globally (Garg& Hyder, 2006). The World Bank Study in 2017 has

shown that effective road safety management and reducing road fatal-

ities could potentially result in long-term economic gains in many

developing economies. The cost of road safety inaction in developing

economies in the past 24years has resulted in the death of more than

1.25 million people annually in the developing economies

.1

Using data

for 135economies, the World Bank study has detailed that an average

of 10% reduction in road fatalities leads to 3.6% increase in per capita

economic growth during 24-year horizon

2

. As per World Health Orga-

nization (WHO, 2015) report, road accidents have dis-proportionately

affected the economic growth of the developing economies. Traffic

crashes and associated injuries pose serious problems to the public

health over the years (García-ferrer, De Juan, & Poncela, 2007). The

report The High Toll of Traffic Injuries: Unacceptable and Preventable by

the World Bank has indicated that economies not investing in road

safety measures could potentially miss the economic boost in the long

run. An ever increasing number of road fatalities pose not only a con-

siderable loss of human lives but also bears the rising economic cost

to the society (Gracia-Ferrer etal, 2007).

Urbanization and ever increasing per capita income have led to the

significant rise in the motorization in the developing economies of the

global South. With the increasing population and urbanization, it has

been predicted that nearly 2.5 billion vehicles will add to the city traf-

fic in the India, China, and Africa. WHO report (2015) shows that the

risk of dying from a road traffic injury is more than 2.7 times in low-

and middle-income economies compared with higher income econo-

mies. Low- and middle-income economies bear nearly 3% of their

gross domestic product (GDP) from road fatalities each year due to

the ineffective road safety management, rapid motorization rate, and

ineffective transport infrastructure conditions.

1

For more please refer to http://abclive.in/road-accidents-block-economic-growth-

developing-countries/.

2

For more please refer to https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/01/09/

road-deaths-and-injuries-hold-back-economic-growth-in-developing-countries.

Received: 18 September 2019 Accepted: 12 October 2019

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2038

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Haryana, India.

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