DEHRADUN: More than 110 people died in road accidents each month in Uttarakhand during the first eight months of 2026, according to Transport Department figures. The state recorded 1,272 crashes between January and August, leaving 878 people dead and 1,448 injured.
The figures have renewed questions about road safety measures across the hill state.
In 2025, Uttarakhand recorded 1,846 accidents and 1,242 deaths.
Department data indicates that the annual death toll has risen since 2019, although figures for the intervening years were not provided.
The Transport Department has identified 2,559 accident-prone locations across Uttarakhand. Safety improvements have been completed at 2,140 of them, while work remains at 419. Yet the continuing toll suggests that fixing identified sites alone has not brought crashes under control.
In Dehradun, Mohabbewala has emerged as a particular concern. Nine major accidents have been reported in the area over the past nine months, killing two people and injuring several others. Despite the repeated crashes, no specific safety measures have yet been undertaken there, according to the information provided.
Separately, the department has designated 179 particularly hazardous locations as “black spots”. Remedial work has been completed at 169, while improvements are under way at the remaining 10. The department is now commissioning an independent audit of 40 black spots to examine why accidents continue despite engineering changes.
Joint Transport Commissioner Rajiv Kumar Mehra said the first phase of the third-party audit would assess how effective the road-engineering measures had been and identify any work still needed.
“Once the report is received, other black spots will also be subjected to a third-party audit,” Mehra said. The aim, he added, was to prevent accidents at the identified locations.
Crash barriers are another major part of the state’s safety programme. Of the 15,155.43 km of roads under agencies including the Public Works Department, National Highways, NHAI, the Border Roads Organisation and NHIDCL, 8,462.37 km have been identified for barrier installation.
Barriers have been installed along 5,692.69 km, leaving 2,769.68 km still to be covered, according to departmental sources. The unfinished stretches underline the scale of the work ahead, particularly where roads run through difficult terrain.
Deputy Transport Commissioner Shailesh Kumar Tiwari said reckless driving and speeding were the principal factors behind crashes. “Over the past few years, road accidents have increased in the state. There are around 2,000 accidents and about 1,200 deaths each year,” he said.
Tiwari also flagged wrong-side driving, especially at night. On poorly lit stretches, vehicles travelling against the flow of traffic face a heightened risk of head-on collisions, he said.
With hundreds of accident-prone sites awaiting improvements and thousands of kilometres still without planned barriers, the audit’s findings will test whether existing interventions are addressing the causes of Uttarakhand’s road deaths.
