Overall fatalities and road crashes at 30 black spots in Mumbai reduced by more than 40% from 2023 to 2024. Road crashes plummeted from 292 to 173, fatalities decreased from 53 to 29. A ‘black spot’ is a stretch of 500 metres on national/ state highways or urban roads where, for the past three consecutive years, five serious road crashes (involving injuries or fatalities) or cumulatively 10 or more deaths occurred. Trials for innovative design interventions, under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety, are currently underway at three critical black spot in the western suburbs of the city. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways defines a ‘ black spot’ as an intersection where five or more serious crashes have occurred in the last three years, or more than 10 people have died or been seriously injured in the same year or year-long period, and the number of deaths has been in excess of 10 per cent. The Mumbai Traffic Police conducted a data-driven approach, generating a heat map of fatal crashes at these black spots, says Joint Commissioner (Traffic) Anil Kumbhare.
