Accidents on Delhi’s roads have risen this year, even as fatalities and injuries have declined compared with the same period in 2025. Nearly 7,000 accidents were recorded until August 1 this year, in which 4,508 people were injured and 810 were killed. Last year, electronic Detailed Accident Report (e-DAR) data showed 5,994 accidents for the same period, resulting in 1,463 fatalities and 6,517 injuries.
A majority of these accidents affect pedestrians, according to police officials. As outlined in the police’s 2023 Road Crash Fatalities Report, pedestrians and two-wheelers accounted for the majority of road accident fatalities. The report identified pedestrians as the most vulnerable road users, followed by two-wheelers, comprising 43% and 38% of the total fatalities, respectively.
Overspeeding, rash driving
The Delhi Traffic Police department largely attributes such accidents to overspeeding and rash driving, while other factors include drunk driving and general negligence of traffic rules.
“We have tried to make people understand that the motive should be to drive safely and to reach their destination without endangering others. We have also conducted multiple awareness drives to help them realise. However, most of it falls on deaf ears. If a person does not want to be educated, then nobody can force him to,” said a senior officer.
He further highlighted that, most of the time, it’s the motorists who fall victim to these accidents. “Most fatal accidents involving motorcyclists have happened because they were not wearing helmets. However, larger vehicles are as much to blame. They keep overspeeding or drinking and driving without caring about the speed breakers. Pedestrians are at risk as well because of such reckless driving. On the other hand, deaths inside cars have mostly happened due to the deceased not wearing seatbelts,” he said.
A significant share of these accidents occurred on high-speed corridors or high-density localities. District-wise data reflects this pattern. Dwarka and South West police districts have consistently recorded among the highest numbers of accidents. In 2025, the Delhi Cantonment police station recorded 100 accidents, of which 21 were fatal.
In numbers
Similarly, the Kapashera police station recorded a significant number of accidents throughout the year — noting a total of 60 cases, with 19 being fatal. A similar pattern was seen in the Dwarka district.
Dwarka’s police stations recorded comparable figures, with an average of 30 cases across 11 PS and a similar number of fatal accidents, from May 1 to December 31, 2025.
Among police stations, the highest counts were at Dwarka South (57 accidents, 12 fatal), Dwarka Sector 23 (54 accidents, 12 fatal) and Baba Hari Das Nagar (48 accidents, 10 fatal).
Similar trends were seen in Lutyens’ Zone. From January 1 to May 31, 2026, the Chanakyapuri police station recorded 21 accidents in which 60 people were injured, and three were reported dead. The Mandir Marg police station recorded four fatal accidents out of 14 during the same period.
Traffic police crackdown
Earlier this year, the Delhi Traffic Police issued 48.4 lakh challans in the first six months as it expanded technology-based enforcement and took measures to ease congestion at key bottlenecks.
The number rose from 47.5 lakh during the corresponding period in 2025. Of the challans issued this year, 17.2 lakh were generated through automated red-light violation and speed-detection systems. The police also registered 2,187 FIRs for dangerous driving.
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Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manish Kumar Agrawal had said that eight signal-free stretches had been developed across Delhi by “closing redundant traffic signals, providing U-turn facilities, removing unauthorised median cuts and rationalising intersections”.
Recent incidents
On September 20, four members of an infrastructure team, including engineers and an HR manager, were killed in the early hours on Road No. 13 in Sarita Vihar, South Delhi. The team was installing traffic-monitoring CCTV equipment for the city’s traffic surveillance network when an out-of-control dumper truck coming from Noida ploughed into their parked boom lift crane and an accompanying autorickshaw. Two additional workers sustained critical injuries, while the truck driver absconded.
On September 17, a 73-year-old man in a car hit a stationary motorcycle on Africa Avenue in South Delhi’s RK Puram area. The 21-year-old rider escaped with minor injuries, but the car dragged the two-wheeler under its chassis for nearly 100 metres. Bystanders eventually flagged down the elderly driver, who claimed he was attempting to pull over rather than flee; police subsequently seized the vehicle and registered a case for rash driving.
