Statistics of fatalities and accidents on highways dominate public discourse on road safety in India. The perpetual rise in accidents and fatalities with the expansion of the highway network and increase in vehicular population speaks volumes about mitigation measures not being effective to check it. While statistics provide crucial data input for the formulation of policies on road safety, a greater challenge lies in the execution of various policy components. Often data-driven strategies tend to ignore the basics, such as pedestrians’ safety, parking space for highway vehicles, etc., in highway construction. The official data highlight the grim reality that accidents involving pedestrians constitute about 17% of the total number of accidents and lay bare the gaps in policy execution. Pedestrians getting hit by speeding vehicles while attempting to cross highways points towards glaring infrastructural and design gaps. Often it becomes difficult for the drivers to apply the brake in time when pedestrians suddenly appear on the fast-moving lane. Pedestrians taking such dangerous and risky crossings can be attributed to the absence of dedicated passenger crossings, which compels them to use any random stretch of the highway and the divider to get to the other side. Various provisions of pedestrian facilities have been specified in the Indian Road Congress “Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities”. These include the provision of foot overbridges at various specified locations with ramps or lifts to facilitate the crossing on national highways by pedestrians and the adoption of traffic calming measures such as rumble strips, speed bumps, and speed tables/raised pedestrian crossings. Transparency on adherence to these provisions in the guidelines is crucial for identifying critical gaps in execution and recommending retrofitting solutions. If these critical gaps remain unaddressed, the data from the road safety audit are reduced to mere statistics, and opportunities for rectification will always be missed. The government attaches high priority to the identification and rectification of black spots/accident spots on NHs and says that rectification of black spots is a continuous process and temporary measures are taken immediately. As of date, completion of short-term remedial measures on 11,866 black spots and long-term remedial measures on 5324 black spots across the NH network in the country is reflective of improvement of road geometrics, junction improvements, spot widening of carriageway, construction of underpasses/overpasses, etc., and is indicative of the efforts to prevent accidents and reduce fatalities. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways defines a road accident black spot to be a stretch of national highway of about 500 metres in length in which either five road accidents (in all three years put together involving fatalities/grievous injuries) took place during the last three calendar years or ten fatalities (in all three years put together) took place during the last three calendar years. Evidently, all other stretches in which fatalities occur in numbers less than the prescribed norm to be identified as Black Spots continue to get less attention compared to the Black Spots. Unless alternative preventive and rectification measures are initiated for these stretches, the remedial measures focused on Black Spots alone will fail to make the highway safer for users. The widening gap between road safety policy and intent puts the spotlight on the 4Es of road safety – Education, Engineering (both of roads and vehicles), Enforcement and Emergency Care. The road safety policy adopted by the central government emphasises focusing on raising awareness, establishing comprehensive road safety information, ensuring safer road infrastructure and vehicles, promoting safer driving practices, protecting vulnerable road users, enforcing traffic laws, and strengthening emergency medical services. Significant progress has been made in road and vehicle engineering and emergency care. However, risky highway crossings by pedestrians and reckless driving accounting for high percentages of rising highway fatalities indicate that education on road safety and enforcement of safety regulations have not received the deserved attention when it comes to execution of the policy. More synergies between the central and state government agencies are needed to address such deficiency. Building awareness, such as educating pedestrians to take adequate precaution and refrain from risky crossings, needs a nonconventional approach which prioritises communities living on both sides of the highways. Regular consultations with this key stakeholder will help the National Highway Authority of India to prioritise safe pedestrian crossings and the provision of service lanes to channelise pedestrian flow towards safer crossing zones through road underpasses or foot overbridges to improve the safety regime. Enforcement of safer driving norms needs to be supplemented with enforcement of design norms to ensure adequate truck bays to curb parking of trucks on highway shoulders. A road safety audit must bring to light whether the provision of truck bays in the northeast region is adequate to keep pace with the increasing volume of truck movement that brings supplies of essentials to the region. Improving highway safety is vital for the sustainability of development, which can be possible only when all the 4Es of road safety get equal priority.