Editorial: Centenarian runner’s death, a collective shame
Fauja Singh’s death in a hit-and-run accident comes as a stark reminder of poor road safety and lack of traffic discipline in India
The death of a centenarian marathon runner, Fauja Singh, in a hit-and-run accident in Punjab raises disturbing questions over how traffic discipline is violated with impunity on Indian roads, leading to preventable tragedies. Fauja Singh (114) was no ordinary man. He epitomised the triumph of human resilience over limitations of biology; an icon of endurance and indomitable spirit. Singh took to running at 89, ran nine full marathons, became the first centenarian to complete a marathon, and served as the bearer of Olympic torches. It is a matter of collective shame for the country that such a global ambassador for discipline and hope met a tragic end, after being run over by a speeding car while crossing a road in his native village on the Jalandhar-Pathankot highway. Though the driver of the car, a 26-year-old non-resident Indian (NRI) Amritpal Singh Dhillon, has since been arrested for reckless driving, the incident came as a stark reminder of poor road safety and lack of traffic discipline in the country. According to figures released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, hit-and-run cases in India have risen sharply — from 53,334 in 2014 to 67,387 in 2022. In 2023 alone, over 1,72,000 people died in road accidents — amounting to 474 deaths each day, or nearly one every three minutes. Of these, 54,000 people died because they were not wearing helmets, and 16,000 because they were not wearing seat belts. These numbers are a grim reminder of how deadly Indian roads remain.
Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari himself has admitted that such mishaps were occurring because people lacked respect and fear for the law. It has become an annual ritual for the government to identify black spots — stretches of roads known for frequent accidents — and launch campaigns asking citizens to take road safety pledges. According to a 2021 notification by the central government, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways identified 5,803 black spots on National Highways across 30 States and Union Territories, based on accident and fatality data from 2015 to 2018. Road accidents also highlight how Indian roads are largely mismanaged. Most roads are overcrowded, with motor vehicles jostling for space alongside bicycles, carts, and rickshaws. In March this year, Gadkari said that India loses 3per cent of its GDP due to around five lakh road accidents every year. He hit the nail on the head when he said that defective road designs and faulty DPRs (Detailed Project Reports) prepared by engineers and consultants were responsible for the ever-increasing road fatalities. What is worse, there is zero accountability. Despite being a major cause of accidents, flawed road designs rarely get due attention from policymakers. The general tendency is to blame reckless driving and poor law enforcement for mishaps, thereby absolving those involved in the planning and execution of road projects of any responsibility.
