Wrong-side driving has emerged as a persistent and deadly menace on Maharashtra’s highways, contributing to a significant number of road accidents and fatalities in 2025. Official data reveals that 460 people lost their lives in 1,262 accidents attributed to driving on the wrong side of the road during the year.
The Chenab Times has learned that motorists often resort to dangerous shortcuts to bypass longer detours, frequently resulting in fatal head-on collisions. This perilous practice has been underscored by recent tragic incidents, including a collision on May 18 on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway in Palghar’s Dahanu taluka. In that incident, 13 people were killed and over 30 injured when a tempo, allegedly driven on the wrong carriageway to avoid a 1.5 km detour, collided head-on with a container trailer.
Another devastating accident occurred on May 24 in Dhule, where six people died and 26 were injured. A sand-laden dumper, traveling on the wrong side of the Mumbai-Agra Highway, rammed into a truck. The situation was further compounded when an Indore-bound private bus collided with the stranded truck while authorities were clearing the wreckage, causing a second collision.
Senior police officials emphasize that wrong-side driving is among the most lethal traffic violations due to the high speeds involved in head-on collisions. Investigations into these incidents suggest that a lack of adequate service roads and the inconvenience of reaching authorized U-turns or underpasses push some drivers to take these hazardous routes.
While highway patrol teams actively enforce regulations against wrong-side driving and speeding, officials acknowledge that enforcement alone is insufficient to resolve the issue. Road-owning agencies are also being urged to address infrastructure deficiencies that contribute to the problem. Despite numerous challans issued for such violations, the persistence of wrong-side driving indicates a deep-seated behavioral challenge among motorists.
The data from 2025 shows that wrong-side driving remains a critical safety concern, contributing to a substantial portion of road fatalities. The incidents in Palghar and Dhule serve as stark reminders of the devastating consequences of this violation. Police statistics indicate that hundreds of thousands of such violations occur annually, highlighting the scale of the challenge.
In a broader context of road safety in Maharashtra, while the overall accident rate per vehicle has seen a decline over the past decade, the total number of crashes and injuries has seen an increase in recent years. The state recorded its lowest accident rate in a decade in 2025, falling to 7 per 10,000 vehicles, a significant drop from 25 per 10,000 vehicles in 2015. However, the total number of crashes saw a slight increase from 36,118 in 2024 to 36,450 in 2025. Fatalities also saw a marginal decline, dropping from 15,715 in 2024 to 15,549 in 2025. Despite these improvements in the overall accident rate and fatalities, the specific issue of wrong-side driving continues to claim a significant number of lives.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has also highlighted an increase in incidents involving wrong-side driving nationally, with fatalities in these categories rising significantly. This trend, coupled with other contributing factors such as speeding, drunken driving, and mobile phone usage, underscores the complex challenges in improving road safety across India. Efforts to combat wrong-side driving in Maharashtra will likely require a multi-pronged approach involving stricter enforcement, infrastructure improvements, and public awareness campaigns to address the risky shortcuts and unsafe driving behaviors that lead to these tragic outcomes.
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The Chenab Times News Desk
