Infra Vaani | Jaipur-Ajmer Highway Truck Fire: Not An Accident But A System Failure

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Last Updated:December 23, 2024, 15:33 IST

According to data from the MoRTH, over 5,000 accidents involving the transport of hazardous or dangerous materials occurred on highways and expressways in 2021 alone, which resulted in over 1,000 deaths

Firefighters douse the fire at the site of the accident after a truck loaded with a chemical collided with some other vehicles and caught fire on the Jaipur-Ajmer Highway, in Jaipur. (PTI Photo)

In the early hours of December 20, at around 5:30 a.m., a serious accident on the Jaipur-Ajmer Expressway—the first expressway in India built on a public-private partnership—claimed the lives of at least 14 people, most of whom were burnt alive. The death toll is expected to rise, with many reported missing and around 30 others battling for their lives in hospitals. Seven are on ventilators, while the rest suffer from severe burn injuries exceeding 50 per cent.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief over the tragedy and announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 2 lakh for the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for the injured from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. Meanwhile, the Opposition has cried foul, blamed the government, and has called for a high-level investigation.

The Rajasthan Police have registered a case of negligent driving under Sections 281, 106(1), and 125(A and B) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Samhita. However, the case is likely to reach a dead end, as the drivers of the two vehicles involved in the crash were instantly reduced to ashes. The state government has also constituted a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to conduct a comprehensive probe into the accident.

Kafkaesque Inferno

This was no ordinary accident. It was an outlandishly bizarre and catastrophic inferno, emanating from a massive “red fireball" followed by a series of explosions that engulfed in flames and charred forty vehicles on a “burning expressway" after an LPG tanker, attempting a U-turn, was hit in the rear by a truck. By the time police and fire tenders arrived, there was little left to save. Their work was reduced to extinguishing the flames and clearing the debris of what had become a ghostly, charred wasteland. It took over seven hours to douse the raging fire.

Luck by Chance

As catastrophic as the accident was, the casualty count is miraculously low due to the serendipitous timing. The Jaipur-Ajmer Expressway is a heavily travelled route, and had the accident occurred during the busy daytime hours, the scale of the mayhem would have been far greater.

Bizarre Yet Not Isolated

Outlandish as this accident may seem, it is merely the tip of the iceberg. According to data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, over 5,000 accidents involving the transport of hazardous or dangerous materials occurred on highways and expressways in 2021 alone (the most recent year for which data is available). These accidents resulted in over 1,000 deaths and thousands of injuries, highlighting the persistent dangers on India’s roadways.

A Tale From The Past

Fireball infernos caused by the unsafe carriage of hazardous substances by road is an old saga in India. I present here the story of the worst highway fire accident involving the transport of dangerous goods.

On March 12, 1995, in Tamil Nadu (near the village of Sendhamangalam), a tanker carrying benzene-based paint thinner raced past a tractor-trailer carrying 60 people from a wedding party. The tanker then slammed into an incoming bus with 48 passengers. The thinner instantly exploded into a “catastrophic red fireball," engulfing all three vehicles with a horrific outcome. While the exact number of dead and injured remains a mystery, a Down to Earth report states that 93 people were burnt alive.

In terms of severity, the tragedy described above dwarfs the worst fire accident in the history of Indian Railways, which occurred on May 16, 1990, in Patna, where 90 people were roasted alive.

In Perpetual Slumber

The Tamil Nadu accident should have been a wake-up call for India. Alas, it did not happen. In truth, the realisation should have come much earlier, as far back as 1956, when the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s Committee of Experts on the Transport of Dangerous Goods first published its Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods. These recommendations are regularly updated to reflect changes in technology and user needs, with the 23rd edition published in 2023.

In contrast, it took 28 long years after the horrific Tamil Nadu fire accident for the Bureau of Indian Standards to wake up and formulate the Indian Standard for Transportation of Dangerous Goods — Guidelines (IS 18149: 2023). The 46-page guidelines are so complex that they have gone over my head, and I fear they are entirely out of tune with Indian conditions, impossible for low-skilled frontline workers (from filling points to drivers) to comprehend and adhere to.

Hazmat Transportation Risk

Hazardous materials (hazmat) or dangerous goods are flammable, explosive, poisonous, and/or radioactive materials. During transportation, mishandling of hazmat can cause combustion, explosions, leakage, and other accidents, all of which pose major threats to the safety of individuals, property, and the environment. This is the primary factor that distinguishes the problems associated with the transportation of hazmat from other transportation issues.

Globally, there have been many serious studies, including those by the UN, leading to precautionary measures to avoid serious accidents while transporting hazardous/dangerous materials. However, these are seldom part of the discourse on road safety in India.

Hiding the Face, Hiding in Shame

In the just-concluded Winter Session of Parliament, Nitin Gadkari, India’s Minister for Roads and Highways, made a startling revelation: in international conferences on road safety, he “hides his face." He was referring to his inability to address the high number of road and highway accidents and the resulting casualties. This is despite the Government of India’s Road and Highway Ministry’s annual allocations increasing from approximately Rs 25,872 crore per year during 2009-14 to Rs 2.78 lakh crore in 2024-2025, an increase of 950 per cent.

This outlay is second only to the annual defence budget. Additionally, as roads and highways are a concurrent list item, the combined central and state expenditure on them may possibly exceed the defence budget.

1= 5=11

Ancient India gave the world “zero." Modern India has come up with a bizarre equation “1=5=11" for the world to solve. Below, I simplify the equation for confounded readers:

“1" – According to World Road Statistics, among 199 countries, India is ranked “number 1" in terms of road crash deaths.
“5" – A 2022 World Bank report (based on flawed, under-reported, and poorly collated Indian road accident data) estimates that India loses “up to 5 per cent" of its annual GDP due to road accidents.
“1=11" – According to the WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety, India, with just “1 per cent" of the world’s vehicle population, accounts for “11 per cent" of total road accident deaths.

Then and Now

At the beginning of the century: In 2003, India recorded 85,998 deaths in road accidents. This increased to 94,968 in 2005 and crossed the 100,000 mark in 2007 (114,590).
Fast forward to 2019: In 2019, the annual death toll in road accidents increased to 151,113. In comparison, China, with 63,093, and the US, with 37,461 annual deaths, were distant second and third.
Over to 2024: As per data presented by the Government of India in the just-concluded Winter Session of Parliament, the annual death toll in road accidents has risen to 178,000, up from 168,000 in 2022 and 172,000 in 2023.

Galactically Monstrous

In terms of casualties in road and highway accidents, India surpasses both the US and China by a significant margin. With fewer than 50,000 annual fatalities in road accidents, the two countries are nowhere near India, where, over the past two decades, deaths from road accidents have increased by 207 per cent to 178,000 annually.

Expressways to Hell, Highways to Mayhem

Expressways, National Highways, and state highways constitute 5 per cent of roads but account for 62.3 per cent of accidents and 60.5 per cent of deaths. Additionally, their share of accidents, casualties, and injuries is increasing alarmingly fast. Intriguingly, straight stretches of highways account for the highest number of accidents and casualties.

Five-Year Saga: A Troubling Legacy

In five years, between 2018 and 2022, official statistics show that 7.7 lakh Indians were killed in road accidents. This far exceeds the total number of:

Deaths in railway accidents since the inception of railroads in India in 1853.
Deaths in war – four wars with Pakistan and one with China.
Deaths due to terrorism since independence.
Deaths due to Naxalism since its birth at Naxalbari.

More worryingly, the number of injuries from road accidents over these five years conservatively exceeds 2 million. The following factors make these injuries often more serious than death:

Most injuries are debilitating – such as head injuries and loss of limbs.
Most of the injured are from socioeconomically disadvantaged strata.
The cost of care, which is often lifelong, drives poor caregivers to absolute poverty and backbreaking debt.

Odd Nation Out

According to the WHO ‘Global Status Report on Road Safety,’ between 2010 and 2021, road traffic deaths worldwide fell by 5 per cent to 1.19 million, with 108 UN member countries reporting reductions. Ten countries reduced deaths by over 50 per cent – Belarus, Brunei Darussalam, Denmark, Japan, Lithuania, Norway, the Russian Federation, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela. Thirty-five other countries reduced deaths notably by 30 per cent to 50 per cent.

The odd nation out is India, where the total number of road traffic fatalities increased from 1.34 lakh in 2010 to 1.54 lakh in 2021. To further update this number, fatalities rose to 1.68 lahks in 2022, 1.72 lahks in 2023, and, as per the latest numbers presented in the Indian Parliament, to 1.78 lakhs.

Reality Bites

Indian data on the number of road accidents, fatalities, and injuries is inaccurate. The data from both sets of official statistics – the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the Research Wing of the Ministry of Roads and Highways – is both inaccurate and underreported. Various studies suggest that underreporting is between 40 per cent and 50 per cent. Accurate data is a precondition for purposive action.

Caught Between Two Wheels

In the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, Roads and Highways are listed under the Concurrent List. Caught between two wheels – the Centre and the states – road safety has fallen into no man’s land. India had planned to reduce road accident fatalities by half by 2024. However, in the past two decades, under both UPA and NDA rule, fatalities have increased by a horrifying 207 per cent.

As a signatory to the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety (2021-2030), India must reduce road traffic deaths and injuries by a minimum of 50 per cent by 2030. Time is slipping by. It is wake-up time.