National Safety Week: Mumbai-Pune expressway sees 58% reduction in crash rate since 2016

In its 53rd year, today, March 4, marks the beginning of the National Safety Week, which was conceived to raise the awareness about principles of safety across sectors, including road safety, workplace safety, human health safety and environmental safety.

The Zero Fatality Corridor, a joint initiative of the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), SaveLIFE Foundation, Maharashtra Highway Police (HSP), Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Department and supported by SBI General Insurance, has led to an 58.3% reduction in road crash fatalities on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway (MPEW) since 2016, and 32% since 2022, marking a significant stride towards a safer and more secure roadway.

SaveLIFE Foundation and MSRDC guided by the Vision Zero philosophy have embarked on a mission to create a scalable and replicable national model to reduce road crash deaths across India. The transformative initiative, supported by SBI General Insurance, focuses on comprehensive interventions spanning the 5Es of Road Safety – Enactment, Engineering, Enforcement, Emergency Care, and Engagement.

The Zero Fatality Corridor initiative for the Mumbai-Pune Expressway was launched in 2016. Once infamous for recording 151 deaths in 2016, roughly 3 deaths every 2km, compared to the 2016 national average of 1 death per 2km, the expressway earned the distinction of being one of the deadliest expressways in the country. The Zero Fatality Corridor initiative was launched soon after with a mission to drastically cut road deaths on the expressway. Under the initiative, hundreds of interventions have been undertaken across road engineering, traffic enforcement, trauma care and road-user engagement.