The fatal fallout of unpaid traffic fines

As weak enforcement negates strong data and improved infrastructure, road fatalities rise in India.

India has nearly 1.5 lakh kilometres of national highways, a rapidly growing network that has transformed road transport across the nation.

But this modern infrastructure is also claiming more lives than ever before in road accidents. India recorded 1.72 lakh road deaths and over 4.6 lakh injuries in 4.8 lakh road crashes in 2023.

We have better roads, smarter enforcement technology and stricter penalties, all of which should lead to fewer accidents. But the death toll on Indian roads is almost directly proportional to growth in road coverage, presenting road crashes as an unfolding public health crisis that demands immediate attention.

We face a complex problem that has led to epistemic erosion – a case where data exists, but learning has failed. We know what is wrong, but we have unsafe roads primarily because of unlearned lessons.

Road safety deteriorates when communities – vehicle users, pedestrians, and system authorities – stop learning and acting on what keeps roads safe.

A gradual loss of evidence-based enforcement and a lack of institutional learning encourage unsafe practices to persist. This builds into a culture that gets worse over time, with safety compromised by the user, the very demographic that will suffer the most and probably be hurt or die on India’s roads.

One aspect of safety is directly linked to the vision of the government. When political pressure overrides evidence, planners ignore crash data. They begin normalising violations, the community accepts these transgressions and catastrophes on the roads follow.

It is ironic that governments sit on large ‘road crash’ data, yet authorities deal with engineering, enforcement, and public health in watertight compartments.

The first step, therefore, ought to be the enforcement of strict penalties for traffic violations. These penalties are a tool to financially disincentivise violations and record those for future administrative/legal action.

Law enforcement agencies in India have significantly improved their ability to accurately ‘detect’ traffic violations and the capacity to issue challans promptly. However, the collection of the fines has not kept pace with detection.

This is one reason why road discipline and road safety have taken a hit. Some cities even report fine collections as low as 5%. There should be zero tolerance for non-payment/delayed payment of fines.

Uncollected fines encourage violations. Prompt ticketing is the proverbial ‘last mile’ of enforcement of rules and would be a severe disincentive to taking and causing risks. It will incentivise expected road behaviour for the safety of all road users.

There is also a principle of equity between violators – those who pay promptly and those who do not. Ideally, every transgressor should be held accountable.

In Delhi, there are about 2.5 crore challans pending against private drivers and about 20 lakh against commercial drivers as of 2025, according to traffic police data.

These figures contradict the common impression that commercial drivers flout rules with impunity. Of the approximately three crore pending cases, almost one-third is for speeding violations and about 48 lakh for unauthorised parking – two major reasons for road crashes/casualties.

Recently, in Pune, when a high-profile road crash grabbed the national headlines, it dawned on the authorities that the offender had multiple traffic challans pending against him.

Timely imposition of the penalties could have saved lives. This is the “broken window syndrome” in policing – when small disorders are not fixed, they encourage more disorder.

Tracking every violation

Collection of fines for traffic violations is a low-hanging fruit, but it still falls well short of expected standards. In this context, Telangana’s no-amnesty position is to be welcomed. This model can address many concerns and help send out a signal that will check violations and, therefore, accidents.

While penalties are one fixable aspect, we must study complex interlinkages that pose serious challenges to road safety and professional traffic management.

These include the conduct of driving tests and license issuance, road maintenance, repair quality, poor traffic engineering, and road signage installation.

Consider the ease with which driving licences are issued or can be virtually bought across the nation. What is the value of a driving test when you negate or undervalue a serious examination?

Furthermore, consider that while many of the roads are well laid out, the tendency to create diversions, hurdles or maintenance work that starts without warning and without adequate and visible signage adds new dangers for fast-moving traffic. Inappropriately placed or badly lit traffic signposts expose inherent failings of the system.

We need holistic solutions that can work across the value chain. One effort worth a mention is the proposed linkage between insurance and the challans – a system in which higher fines will lead to higher insurance premiums.

This will demand proper installation of objective and tech-supported enforcement systems, under which it is theoretically possible for every violator to be fined for every violation.

Multiple violations must lead to a loss of the driving licence, as is the case in many countries across the developed world.

India cannot be a developed nation with a high rate of accidents. Finding solutions must be a key development priority – it is time the country looked to draw the full benefits of a modern road network, to drive into the future, faster but also safer.

The writer is a former director general of the NSG who led traffic management as Joint Commissioner of Police – Traffic, Hyderabad, and as Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada; Syndicate: The Billion Press.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.)