NEW DELHI: For a scooter rider, a green light means it is time to move. For a motorcyclist, a bus pulling up alongside is part of the daily commute. But when a routine ride ends in a fatal collision with a public transport bus, it raises a question about how safe Delhi’s roads really are.
On Saturday, two men were killed in separate crashes involving DTC buses. In Anand Parbat, a 40-year-old scooter rider died and four others were injured after a DTC electric bus rammed multiple vehicles.
39 Fatal Accidents In First 9 Months Of 2026
In the other crash, Pramod Malik, a cab driver from Haryana, was riding his motorcycle from Masoodpur towards Mahipalpur when a bus mowed him down near Fortis Hospital in south Delhi’s Vasant Kunj. He was taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre, where doctors declared him dead.
The numbers underline the scale of the concern. Between Jan and Sept, fatal crashes attributed to DTC buses have tripled -- from 13 last year to 39 during the corresponding period this year. The number of people killed went up from 13 to 41.
According to Economic Survey of Delhi, for FY 2025-26, the DTC fleet stood at 3,213 buses as of March 20, 2026. Combined with the about 2,500 cluster buses operating under DIMTS in Dec 2025, the total fleet would have been around 5,700 buses.
Since then, more buses have been added and DTC and DIMTS operations have been merged, taking the current combined fleet to about 6,840 buses.
In the past few months, there has been a series of fatal crashes involving DTC buses and two-wheelers at different locations across the city. In Sept, 19-year-old Himanshu died after his scooter collided with a DTC bus near Rathi Hospital in west Delhi’s Ranhola. The pillion rider, Monu Kumar, 24, was injured too. Police arrested the bus driver and registered a case.
Before that, on Aug 15, Sonu, 22, died after a DTC bus hit the two-wheeler he was travelling on near Dichaon bus depot in Najafgarh. His pillion rider, 24-year-old Sonta, was injured. Police said the bus driver fled the scene, prompting a hit-and-run investigation.
A day earlier, 12-year-old Kayna Pal was killed when a DTC e-bus hit the scooter on which she was travelling with her uncle in New Ashok Nagar. The two were on their way to a school Independence Day function when the collision occurred. Kayna fell onto the road and was run over by the bus, while her uncle was injured. The driver was subsequently arrested.
With fatal crashes attributed to DTC buses tripling in nine months, the rise raises questions about driver conduct, compliance with traffic rules and the effectiveness of measures to prevent such collisions. The figures alone do not establish why the crashes occurred, but the increase makes a closer examination of bus safety and accident-prevention measures imperative.
Anil Chhikara, former Delhi transport commissioner, said, “There are three or four factors behind these accidents. The biggest is that electric buses have a faster pickup and accelerate rapidly. When they accelerate quickly on busy roads, the risk of fatal accidents increases. Another issue is the blind spot on the left side of buses. Drivers cannot see the area immediately below the windscreen, and two-wheeler riders often squeeze into small gaps and enter these blind spots. I have evaluated this myself and found that driving on Delhi’s roads is particularly challenging. Drivers may not always have the experience or expertise to react safely in such situations.
“The solutions are straightforward. Since we are unable to reduce traffic, we need to control the acceleration of buses. Drivers should not be appointed without proper assessment and training. A structured training programme using simulators should be developed to prepare them for real-world road conditions. Buses should also be fitted with radar sensors or advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS) feature that can detect obstacles and automatically bring the vehicle to a stop.”
Sources in traffic police said sensitisation programmes on road safety are conducted for DTC bus drivers. However, violations can take different forms, including speeding, unsafe overtaking and failure to follow lane discipline. Buses are meant to use the left lane, but they are often seen moving in the middle or right lanes, the sources said. Such manoeuvres can create difficulties for other motorists, particularly two-wheeler riders sharing the road with larger vehicles.
“Unsafe overtaking can further increase the risk of collisions on busy stretches, where limited space and heavy traffic leave drivers with little room to react,” said a source.