CAG: 82,843 accident victims missed golden hour, 17.10% of cases

Who it concerns: Government of Rajasthan (specifically the Road Safety Cell, Transport Department, Police Department, and Public Works Department)

What the auditor found

• Road fatalities increased to 11,790 in 2024, failing to meet the 2018-2020 action plan goal of reducing them by 50% from the 2015 base of 10,510.
• 146 roads (34.35%) costing over ₹10 crore each did not undergo any safety audit, and only 54.13% of eligible roads had design-level audits.
• ₹343.36 crore was utilized out of the available ₹716.37 crore Road Safety Fund up to 2024-25.
• ₹39 crore allocated for Automated Driving Tracks had inadequate progress; 44 offices issued 2.36 lakh licenses without testing tracks.
• Ambulances failed to reach accident sites in 46,892 cases (8.00%) and arrived late in 24,457 cases (4.54%).
• Severe personnel shortages were found, including 57.89% to 94.89% vacancies in traffic police personnel across cities.
• CAG recommended adopting a multi-sectoral approach, ensuring tri-stage road audits, establishing automated driving test tracks, and addressing personnel shortages.

Also in the document

• CAG noted that despite having only 1% of the world's vehicles, India accounts for 11% of global road crash deaths, with one person dying every four minutes.
• CAG highlighted that driver errors are responsible for 79% of road accident fatalities, yet 44 offices issued the highest number of licenses without any testing tracks.
• CAG reported that in 82,843 cases (17.10%), accident victims were taken to the nearest hospital after the 'golden hour' for survival.
• CAG cited three recent fatal accidents (Jaisalmer, Jaipur, and Phalodi in late 2025) as examples of systemic weaknesses in vehicle safety compliance, enforcement, and engineering.