Pakistan Road Safety Statistics 2026: The Numbers That Matter

Road traffic crashes remain one of the leading causes of preventable death in Pakistan. Despite incremental improvements in some areas, the country's road safety crisis continues to deepen. This article compiles the latest available statistics from official government data, the World Health Organization, and the Asian Transport Observatory to provide a comprehensive picture of where Pakistan stands as of early 2026.

Overview: Pakistan's Road Safety Crisis

The WHO estimated approximately 28,000 road traffic deaths in Pakistan in 2021. However, Pakistan's own national statistics reported only about 5,600 fatalities for the same year, while the Global Burden of Disease study estimated the figure at closer to 38,000. This six-fold gap between WHO estimates and national reporting highlights a severe under-reporting problem that makes the true scale of the crisis difficult to measure.

What is not in dispute: road traffic injuries account for 2.2% of all deaths in Pakistan, and the economic cost of fatalities and serious injuries was approximately $12 billion USD in 2021 — equivalent to roughly 3% of Pakistan's GDP, according to the Asian Transport Observatory's Pakistan Road Safety Profile 2025. That figure exceeds the country's entire healthcare expenditure of 2.9% of GDP.

Fatalities by Province: 2025 Data

Punjab

Punjab, Pakistan's most populous province, recorded the highest toll. According to Rescue 1122 data, 482,870 road traffic incidents occurred in 2025, leaving nearly 570,000 people injured and 4,791 killed. This represents a 19% increase in fatalities compared to 2024 (4,139 deaths) and a 5.8% increase in total incidents. The disproportionate rise in deaths relative to incidents indicates that crashes are becoming more severe.

Balochistan

Balochistan has emerged as the province with the highest road accident rate in Pakistan. In just the first six months of 2025, the Medical Emergency Response Center (MERC) reported 12,110 road accidents, leading to 239 deaths and 15,690 injuries. For the full year, Rescue 1122 teams responded to over 24,000 traffic accidents on national highways and inter-provincial roads. The N-25 Highway (Karachi-Chaman) is among the worst-hit routes, witnessing 35,113 crashes and 900 fatalities over a five-year period.

Sindh

Sindh ranks second in total fatalities nationally. The province continues to face severe challenges from intercity highway crashes, urban congestion in Karachi, and infrastructure hazards. Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, faces a compounding crisis from open manholes (27 deaths in 2025), monsoon flooding, and electrocution from exposed wires during rains.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Other Regions

KPK ranks third in road traffic fatalities nationally, with mountainous terrain and narrow roads contributing to frequent bus and truck crashes. Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir face similar challenges on mountain roads, though detailed provincial data for 2025 remains limited.

Key Risk Factors

Several structural and behavioral factors drive Pakistan's road safety crisis:

• Poor road infrastructure — As of 2024, only 1% of roads have a 3-star or better safety rating for pedestrians, and only 7% for cyclists, compared to Asia-Pacific averages of 14% and 22% respectively. For motorcyclists, only 15% of roads meet a 3-star standard.
• Speeding — Over-speeding remains the single largest cause of fatal crashes, particularly on national highways and motorways.
• Low helmet usage — Despite recent enforcement campaigns in Punjab, helmet compliance remains inconsistent across the country. Motorcycles are involved in 75% of all road traffic incidents in Punjab.
• Low seatbelt usage — Average seatbelt usage across Pakistan is roughly 20%, with compliance as low as 5% on rural roads and highest (53%) on motorways, according to observational studies.
• Infrastructure hazards — Open manholes, potholes, exposed wiring, and waterlogged roads kill hundreds annually. These are preventable deaths caused by maintenance failures, not driver error.
• Fragmented emergency services — Outside of Punjab's Rescue 1122 system, emergency medical response remains under-resourced with delayed response times and poorly equipped ambulances, particularly in rural areas.

Vulnerable Road Users

Motorcyclists

Pakistan's vehicle fleet is dominated by two-wheelers, which account for over 75% of all registered vehicles. Unsurprisingly, motorcyclists bear the heaviest burden. In Punjab, 75% of all road traffic incidents in 2025 involved motorcycles. Motorcycle accidents rose by 15% year-over-year, according to Rescue 1122 reports. Potholes and broken road surfaces are especially lethal for motorcycle riders, who lack the protective shell of a car.

Pedestrians

Pedestrians accounted for 41% of all road traffic fatalities in Pakistan in 2021, according to Global Road Safety Facility data. This is significantly higher than the Asia-Pacific average of 31% for pedestrians and cyclists combined. The lack of footpaths, zebra crossings, and pedestrian bridges in most Pakistani cities forces people to share road space with fast-moving traffic.

Children

Children are disproportionately affected by infrastructure hazards. Of the 27 manhole-related deaths in Karachi in 2025, eight were children, some as young as three years old. Open drains, uncovered manholes, and lack of safe walking paths around schools make children particularly vulnerable.

Urban vs. Rural

The nature of road safety challenges differs sharply between urban and rural Pakistan:

• Urban areas — Cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi face congestion-related crashes, infrastructure hazards (open manholes, exposed wires, waterlogging), and pedestrian fatalities. The sheer density of traffic means more frequent, if often lower-speed, collisions.
• Rural and highway areas — Inter-city highways and rural roads see fewer incidents by volume but far higher fatality rates per crash. Over-speeding, head-on collisions, bus and truck rollovers, and the near-total absence of emergency medical services contribute to this deadlier pattern.

Pakistan has about 102 fatalities per thousand kilometres of road, reflecting how deadly the road network is relative to its size.

How Pakistan Compares Regionally

According to WHO estimates for 2021, Pakistan's road traffic fatality rate was 11.9 per 100,000 population, which is lower than the Asia-Pacific average of 15.2 and the Central and West Asia average of 13.1. However, this seemingly moderate rate masks several realities:

• Pakistan saw only an 11% decrease in fatalities per 100,000 population between 2010 and 2021, compared to a 19% reduction across the Asia-Pacific region — meaning Pakistan is falling further behind its peers.
• The WHO estimate of 28,000 deaths is approximately five times higher than Pakistan's own national report of about 5,600, indicating that the official fatality rate significantly under-counts the true toll.
• With the WHO's estimate of approximately 28,000 deaths, Pakistan accounts for a significant share of all road traffic deaths in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region.

The International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP) estimates that an annual investment of just $550 million USD — about 0.2% of GDP — could potentially save approximately 9,000 lives per year through targeted road infrastructure improvements.

The Silent Killers: Infrastructure Hazards

Beyond traditional traffic crashes, Pakistan faces a distinctive category of road deaths caused by infrastructure neglect:

• Open manholes: 27 people died in Karachi in 2025 from falling into open manholes and drains. In January 2026, a mother and her infant daughter died after falling into an open sewer line at the Data Darbar project in Lahore.
• Electrocution from exposed wires: During the 2025 monsoon season, electrocution was one of the leading causes of rain-related deaths in Karachi. A case was filed against K-Electric after two brothers were electrocuted by an improperly buried 11,000-volt cable in Shah Faisal Colony.
• Monsoon-related road destruction: The 2025 monsoon floods killed over 1,000 people, destroyed 239 bridges, and rendered 671 km of roads impassable, according to United Nations reporting.

What Can Be Done

Solving Pakistan's road safety crisis requires action at multiple levels. But meaningful change can begin with citizens:

1. Report every hazard you see. Open manholes, potholes, exposed wires, waterlogged roads — every unreported hazard is a silent threat. Platforms like MarkSafe make reporting free, anonymous, and instant.
2. Demand better infrastructure data. Pakistan's under-reporting of road deaths hides the true scale of the crisis. Citizen-generated data from community mapping platforms fills this gap and creates a public record that cannot be ignored.
3. Support enforcement of existing laws. Pakistan has seatbelt and helmet laws on the books. Compliance campaigns — like Punjab Traffic Police's drive that fined over 200,000 motorcyclists for helmet violations — demonstrate that enforcement works. Citizens can support these efforts by complying and encouraging others.
4. Advocate for pedestrian infrastructure. With 41% of road fatalities being pedestrians and only 1% of roads rated safe for walking, every footpath, zebra crossing, and pedestrian bridge makes a measurable difference.
5. Share the data. Statistics alone do not save lives, but informed communities demand change. Share these numbers with elected representatives, on social media, and in community conversations.

Sources

• WHO Road Safety Country Profile: Pakistan (2023)
• Asian Transport Observatory: Pakistan Road Safety Profile 2025
• Punjab Road Deaths Jump 19% in 2025 (Rescue 1122 Data)
• Sharp Rise in Traffic Accidents Across Balochistan (The Balochistan Post)
• Global Road Safety Facility: Pakistan
• Karachi Manhole Deaths Reach 27 in 2025 (Pakistan Today)
• iRAP: Pakistan Road Assessment Program (2025)
• WHO Data: Road Traffic Mortality Rate per 100,000 Population
• UN News: Monsoon Floods Kill More Than 700 in Pakistan (2025)