PRAN (Policy Research Action Network) Foundation: From Awareness to Accountability: Bridging the "Forgotten Phase" of Road Safety

From Awareness to Accountability: Bridging the "Forgotten Phase" of Road Safety

By Adv. Amarjeet Singh Panghal

Founder & Executive Director, PRAN Foundation

India does not have a road safety problem. It has a road safety governance problem. We have the data, the engineering knowledge, and the legal frameworks. What we lack is the institutional will to convert all three into action—and the systems to hold authorities accountable when they fail to act.

It was this uncomfortable truth that framed my participation on April 12, 2026, at the Project Rakshak National Road Safety Implementation Forum, convened by the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre (TRIP Centre) at IIT Delhi in collaboration with @Crashfree India. Serving as a Roundtable Discussant representing PRAN Foundation, I joined engineers, policymakers, and young practitioners to move beyond awareness toward implementation and accountability.

The Youth Paradox: From Victims to Problem-Solvers

There is a painful irony at the heart of India's road safety crisis. Young people (18–45 years) account for the overwhelming majority of road crash fatalities in a country that loses over 1.7 lakh lives every year. They are the primary victims, yet they are also, statistically, the most frequent violators of traffic safety norms.

Project Rakshak confronts this paradox head-on. By channelling the technical capacity of students from IITs and NITs into structured, engineering-led field audits, the project transforms potential victims into civic problem-solvers. These young practitioners identified micro-infrastructure failures—unmarked blind turns, absent pedestrian refuges, and poorly lit crossings—that formal systems routinely miss.

Beyond Blackspots: The Micro-Risk Crisis

National road safety policy has long been preoccupied with "blackspots." While necessary, this focus is incomplete. The everyday carnage happens in micro-risk zones: the school gate with no refuge island, the hospital approach with no safe crossing, or the neighborhood junction with blocked sight-lines.

The Project Rakshak Report, launched at the forum, fill this void. Its mapping of 31 priority sites across 18 cities is an indictment of the gap between lived experience and state measurement. At PRAN, we believe that identifying a known hazard and failing to act is a legal failure. Fixing a road hazard is not just engineering; it is preventive justice.

The Forgotten Phase: Where Justice Disappears

The forum also saw the launch of the Crash Compensation Claim Study Brief, which builds upon our earlier research: "Justice Unserved". This report documented the catastrophic failure that occurs once the ambulance leaves the scene:

₹80,000 Crore Unpaid: Legally mandated compensation remains unpaid to victims across India.
10.46 Lakh Cases Stagnant: Motor accident cases are stagnant in courts, taking an average of 3.6 years to resolve.
205 Claims Filed: Despite ₹2 lakh entitlements for hit-and-run deaths, only 205 claims were filed nationwide in FY 22–23 due to a lack of institutional support.

We invest in crash prevention but abandon crash survivors. The post-crash phase is not a welfare problem; it is a rights problem.

Five Shifts for the Path Forward

During the roundtable, I proposed five concrete interventions to close this gap:

Institutionalize Youth Audits: Make structured field audits a credit-bearing component of engineering education.
Connect Findings to DRSCs: Ensure audit data triggers mandatory, time-bound repair cycles under District Road Safety Committee oversight.
Public Hazard Dashboards: Create transparent tracking systems where every identified risk is tagged and tracked to closure.
Prioritize Vulnerable Zones: Implement mandatory audit protocols for school and hospital influence zones.
Forge Tri-Sector Partnerships: Ensure industry, academia, and legal networks work in concert to translate engineering findings into legal remedy.

My sincere appreciation to Kesar Kanjhlia, Dr. Geetam Tiwari, and the teams at Crashfree India and IIT Delhi for a forum that treated implementation as the only acceptable measure of success.

About the Event: The Project Rakshak National Forum

The forum, held at the Lecture Hall Complex, IIT Delhi, served as the culmination of a large-scale infrastructure pilot launched in July 2025. Under the technical mentorship of experts like Dr. Geetam Tiwari and Dr. Richa Ahuja, student teams from leading technical and planning institutions presented the findings of months-long field assessments.

Key Highlights of the Forum included:

Poster Showcase: 18 teams presented detailed engineering audits for high-risk sites in cities like Varanasi, Vijayawada, and Delhi.
Institutional Traction: The forum revealed that 22+ sites have already secured implementation approvals from local municipal bodies and traffic police.
Multidisciplinary Roundtables: Discussions brought together District Road Safety Committee (DRSC) Chairpersons and Transport Commissioners to bridge the gap between academic research and government action.
National Impact Launch: The event featured a keynote address by Shri. V Umashankar (Secretary, MoRTH) and a special video message from Dr. Matts-Ake Belin (WHO), underscoring the project's alignment with the global Safe System approach.

The event concluded with an Awards Ceremony celebrating the most implementable safety designs, proving that youth-led evidence generation is a viable model for strengthening road safety governance across India.

Take Action: If you have identified a recurring road hazard in your locality, use PRAN Foundation's Legal Watchdog service to document the risk and trigger institutional accountability.

Contact: pranfoundationindia@gmail.com | www.publicrightaction.org

Read More: https://www.publicrightaction.org/2026/04/how-jan-vishwas-bill-2026-rewrites-road.html