Official data shows that 95,722 people have died in road accidents in Maharashtra from January 2019 to September 2025, highlighting a problem that still hasn’t improved. According to statistics from the
Maharashtra transport department, the state had 26,922 road accidents and 11,532 deaths in the first nine months of this year, compared to 26,719 accidents and 11,573 deaths in the same period last year.
In the latest major accident, eight people died and 14 were injured when a car was crushed between two large container trucks, causing a huge fire that engulfed all three vehicles on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway in Pune on Thursday evening.
In the six years up to September 30 this year, Maharashtra recorded 219,039 road accidents, resulting in 95,722 deaths, 129,670 serious injuries, and 53,036 minor injuries.
Last year, there were 15,715 deaths in 36,118 crashes, while this year up to September, 11,532 people have died in 26,922 accidents.
Nationally, India lost 172,890 lives in road accidents in 2023. Maharashtra ranked third with 15,366 deaths that year, behind Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, according to the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Experts say weak enforcement, reckless driving, poor training, and overloaded vehicles are common reasons for India’s high road death numbers. In the past six years, accident and fatality numbers in Maharashtra only dropped in 2020 due to pandemic restrictions, but have risen steadily since then despite efforts to reduce road deaths.
Between January and September this year, Washim district saw a 37 percent increase in road accidents compared to last year, followed by Dharashiv (27 percent), Solapur city (26 percent), and Sangli (25 percent).
Road deaths rose by 59 percent in Buldhana district in the first nine months of this year, followed by Sangli (54 percent), Solapur city (50 percent), Latur (33 percent), Bhandara (33 percent), Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar rural (29 percent), and Amravati (25 percent).
Among districts and major cities, Mumbai had the highest number of accidents with 1,878 between January and September this year, while Nashik Rural had the most deaths with 656 road fatalities.
