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136 people die every hour in road crashes in the world, i.e., 1.19 million people each year. 92% of those deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries like India. In fact, India accounts for the highest number of road crash fatalities in the world. It is estimated that more than half of these deaths can be prevented through timely, quality emergency care. India has signed the Stockholm Declaration on Road Safety (2020), committing to a 50% reduction in fatalities by 2030.
About the organisation
SaveLIFE Foundation (SLF), a 2024 Skoll awardee organisation, is committed to saving lives on India’s roads and soon, in other high-burden nations in South and Southeast Asia. Over more than a decade, SLF has pursued both bottom-up solution implementation and embedding those learnings into policy reform as the top-down pillar of its model, seeking to solve India’s road safety crisis at a population scale.
Grounded Action: Improving road safety through its Zero-Fatality Solution (ZFS), an integrated approach that addresses the full road safety system: safer road design, stronger enforcement, spreading awareness and improving trauma care. To date, ZFS has been deployed directly and via government partners across 77 highways and 47 districts in 16 states. On some of India's busiest highways, this has translated into up to 67% reduction in road crash deaths.
Systems Change: SLF has been a driving force behind national policy reform, including the passage of the Good Samaritan Law in 2016, which protects bystanders who assist crash victims. They also secured a ban on protruding rods from trucks, reforms to the Bus Body Code and critical reforms to the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, as amended in 2019. They are also working with the government to improve the National Road Safety Code, and bring India its first-ever Right to Trauma Care Act.
Piyush Tewari
Founder & CEO
Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Ashoka Fellow, Rolex Awardee, Elevate Prize Winner, Young Global Leader - World Economic Forum
Headquarters: India
Geographies: South & Southeast Asia
Domains:
Health, Equity
Journey of Exponential Change
To address road safety at scale:
SLF created an index of the 100 deadliest districts and corridors, accounting for ~30% of national fatalities and 200 most fatal highways accounting for 50%–60% of total deaths.
Their belief is that deep engagement in these 100 districts by 2027 would trigger a compounding effect in the other 700 districts in India.
Today, SLF stands at an inflection point: ready to move from a high-performing program to a scalable systems orchestrator driving national and international impact, scaling not just faster—but stronger and more sustainably, ensuring that every life saved becomes part of a self-reinforcing system for road safety.
The Big Quest:
How can we institutionalise the Zero Fatality Solution model within India's government systems — across road design, enforcement, and trauma care — to save 50% of the lives currently being lost, by 2030?
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