NEW DELHI: Road deaths in India touched an all time high of little over 1.77 lakh in 2024. Road transport ministry in a written reply to the Lok Sabha shared the number of people killed in road crashes last year, though the ministry is yet to publish the annual report on road accidents.In 2023, road crashes had claimed around 1.73 lakh lives.In a written reply to a question from DMK’s A Raja, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said, “As per the information received from States / UTs, total number of road accident fatalities reported in the country on all category of roads during the calendar year 2024 were 1,77,177, which includes data in respect of West Bengal taken from eDAR portal.”In another reply on deaths on NHs, the minister informed the House that 54,433 were killed in crashes on such roads, which is about 31% of all road fatalities in the country.Experts have consistently pointed to the need for scientific investigation of all fatal crashes and fixing responsibility of all agencies, which can help reduce road deaths. “Govt must involve civil society and a large number of non-govt entities to deal with this crisis rather than depending on only a few of them as the magnitude of the problem is huge,” said one of the experts.