Goa’s Director General of Police, Alok Kumar, highlighted road safety as a top government priority during the 8th UN Global Road Safety Week, setting an ambitious target to reduce road accident fatalities by 20% in 2025. This goal comes against a backdrop of troubling statistics—while Goa reports 25-30 murders annually, over 350 people lose their lives in road accidents each year, predominantly within the 20-40 age group. Encouragingly, the first quarter of 2025 saw a 23% drop in fatal accidents and a 25% decrease in road deaths compared to the same period in 2024.
“We’ve set a goal to reduce road accident fatalities by 20 percent this year, which will only be possible through a community-wide shift in behavior,” Kumar stated, emphasizing the critical need to instill road discipline from an early age. “Meaningful change begins with how we behave on the roads, this is key to saving lives.”
To sustain this progress, DGP Kumar called for a community-wide behavioral shift, beginning with road safety education from a young age. Goa’s strategy includes stricter traffic enforcement, over one lakh violators penalized in 2025, and extensive public education through 500+ lectures. The newly launched Goa Road Safety Policy focuses on leveraging technology like automation and AI for traffic monitoring and vehicle certification. With support from multiple departments and local traffic committees, initiatives such as empowering traffic wardens and decentralized road management aim to create a safer road environment for all.