Delhi road accidents have claimed 1,306 lives between January and September 2026, with 4,668 crashes recorded during the first nine months of the year, according to a report by Jagran – New Delhi. The figures put the city’s road deaths at an average of nearly five a day and mark the highest daily average for accidents, fatalities and injuries in the past six years, the report said.
The report stated that 4,662 people were injured in road accidents during the same nine-month period. An average of 17 crashes was recorded every day between January and September, indicating that road safety remains a serious challenge despite traffic-rule enforcement and road-safety campaigns.
The number of deaths recorded in the first nine months of 2026 is already above 1,300. In comparison, 1,617 people died in road accidents in Delhi during the whole of 2025. The figures reported for 2026 cover only the period up to September and do not include the final three months of the year.
The vehicle-wise data cited in the report shows that cars accounted for 15 per cent of vehicles involved in crashes through September. Trucks represented 13 per cent, buses six per cent and e-rickshaws 2.5 per cent. The figures point to the involvement of different categories of vehicles in Delhi’s road-safety problem, from private cars and commercial trucks to public transport and intermediate public transport vehicles.
E-rickshaw-related crashes have increased over the past several years, according to the figures cited by Jagran. There were 55 such cases in 2021, rising to 66 in 2022 and 118 in 2023. The number stood at 112 in 2024 and increased to 163 in 2025. By September 2026, 119 e-rickshaw-related crashes had already been recorded.
Truck-related crashes have also remained a continuing concern. The report said 145 such cases were recorded in 2021, followed by 181 in 2022 and 190 in 2023. The number was 188 in 2024 and rose to 207 in 2025. In the first nine months of 2026, 170 crashes involving trucks had been recorded.
The figures come as Delhi continues to rely on a road network used by private vehicles, commercial transport, buses and smaller passenger vehicles operating across dense residential, commercial and industrial areas. The data reported for the first nine months does not identify individual crash locations, causes, road conditions or the share of cases involving speeding, impaired driving, visibility, vehicle defects or pedestrian movement.
The report also did not provide a specific breakdown of fatalities by road-user category or details of any new enforcement measures linked to the latest figures. The next official milestone will be the release of the full-year road-accident data for 2026, which will establish the final number of crashes, injuries and deaths recorded in Delhi.
