SRINAGAR — The death of a 28-year-old motorcyclist in Srinagar on Thursday has renewed concerns over the vulnerability of two-wheeler riders on Kashmir’s roads, amid a series of motorcycle and scooty crashes reported across the Valley in recent weeks.
National Crime Records Bureau data for 2024 recorded 840 road-accident deaths in Jammu and Kashmir, including 202 people travelling on two-wheelers. The same dataset recorded 2,198 injured two-wheeler occupants.
For the city, NCRB data recorded 114 people injured in two-wheeler-related road accidents in 2024, along with six deaths.
A hospital-based study from SKIMS Medical College Hospital, Bemina, meanwhile, provides an indication of the severity of injuries suffered in motorcycle crashes.
The study examined 200 adult two-wheeler accident victims treated at the tertiary-care facility and found that only 36, or 18%, had been wearing helmets at the time of the crash.
As many as 164 victims were not wearing helmets. Head injuries were recorded more frequently among non-helmeted riders, while 14 of the 15 deaths in the study occurred among those who were not wearing helmets.
Traffic data cited by the news agency KNT showed that rural Kashmir recorded 1,502 road accidents and 210 fatalities in 2025, compared with 1,729 accidents and 279 deaths in 2024.
Traffic authorities have identified dangerous stunts, over-speeding, wrong-lane driving and other violations as recurring problems.
In 2025, Traffic Police Rural Kashmir said 30 people involved in dangerous stunts had been identified, counselled and booked. The department also reported that around 90% of two-wheeler riders in its jurisdiction were using helmets.
Recent accidents have involved motorcycles and scooters in Srinagar, Shopian, Ramban and other parts of the Valley, including collisions with larger vehicles and crashes in which riders lost control.
In August, a scooty rider was killed in Srinagar’s Parimpora area, while a woman travelling as a pillion rider died after a scooty skidded in Shopian.
A Traffic official said motorcycles and scooters had become an important mode of everyday transport in Kashmir because of their relatively low cost and ability to navigate congested roads.
“The question for traffic authorities is therefore not simply how many challans have been issued or how many accidents have been recorded, but whether the measures being taken are actually preventing riders from becoming the next casualty,” the official said.
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