ROAD ACCIDENTS – SOCIAL ISSUE
News:
Not wearing seat belt claimed 16,397 lives in road accidents in 2021: MoRTH
What's in the news?
● A
total of 16,397 persons were killed in road accidents in 2021 due to not wearing
seat belts, of which 8,438 were drivers and the remaining 7,959 were
passengers, according to a report by the Ministry of Road Transport and
Highways (MoRTH).
Key takeaways:
● The
report titled 'Road accidents in India -
2021' further said a total of 46,593 persons were killed in road accidents
due to not wearing a helmet, of which 32,877 were drivers and 13,716 were
passengers.
● A
total of 4,12,432 road accidents occurred in 2021 which claimed 1,53,972 lives
while 3,84,448 people were injured.
India's road density:
● India’s road density at
1890.75 per 1000 sq.km of area in 2017-18 was higher than that of many
developed countries though surface/paved
road constituting 64.6 vehicles per kilometre of road length has increased from
28 vehicles in 2010 to 46 in 2020.
● This
is indicative of the growing road traffic congestion in the country.
Reason for the poor road safety record in India:
1. Human errors:
● Reluctance
of the Indians in wearing helmets, seat belts and other road safety equipment.
● Usage
of mobile phones while driving as we
are seeing often during our travels.
● Consumption
of alcohol (Drunk and drive).
● Rash driving
by youngsters in the name of enjoyment.
● Lack of awareness
of traffic and road safety rules.
● Restlessness
of the drivers especially cab drivers.
● Lack
of behavioral change in adapting to the modern traffic laws.
2. Issues of Indian Roads:
● Lack of standardized road
infrastructure.
● Presence
of many black spots.
● Lack
of enough gaps in the median on the national highways, untreated intersections
and missing crash barriers.
● No
warning symbols placed on many potholes caused by rains causing accidents.
● Uneven road surface
because of lack of transparency and accountability
from the highway department and road workers.
● Lack
of planning to control congestion and traffic causing more time and making users to rash drive in a short period
of time.
3. Issues in the side of vehicle manufacturers:
● Lack of vehicle safety
standards.
● Making
cars without airbags to target the consumption market rather than their safety.
● Boom
in the automobile sector and the parallel rise of the Indian middle class has
increased the volume of vehicles on the road.
● In
a way, road safety is a function of income growth in a country as the
manufacturers provide more safety provisions to high-end consumers and leave
out the middle class sections.
4. Weak law enforcement:
● Lack
of stronger laws in punishing the violators.
● Lower conviction rate due
to the corruption in traffic administration.
● Negligence
of the authorities in checking the conditions of vehicles most number of times.
● Lack
of rapid trauma care on highways and reluctance to treat by majority of the
doctors despite being a law in place.
Impacts of road accidents:
1. Human losses
- We lose about 1,50,000 people due to road accidents and about 60% of those
deaths are in the 18-24 age group, which is a big loss and causes a higher
fatality rate.
2. Economic losses
- The road accidents causing loss to 3
percent of India's GDP due to the loss of demographic dividend and human
capital in productive sectors.
3. Social losses
- Job losses and related financial hardships, loss of amenity causing a fatal
impact on the functioning of the whole family. About 40% of women reported a
change in their working patterns post-accident (as the productive member of
their family got affected).
4. Psychological impact
- Those who suffered major injuries during accidents got suffered from both
physical and mental trauma affecting their mental health and confidence.
Initiatives for road safety:
1. Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety:
● India
agreed ways to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic
accidents - a key milestone within the new Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) target 3.6.
2. Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030:
● It
sets an ambitious target of preventing
at least 50% of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030.
3. Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019:
● The
Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 was brought in to improve road safety in
India by amending Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. The amendment Act has introduced
heavy fines for various offences.
4. 3-Year Action Agenda of NITI Aayog:
● Highlighting
the standardizing the reporting of accidents & action map thereafter.
5. State Citizen Service Portals and e-FIR:
● Through
their State Citizen Service Portals, five states/UTs, namely Delhi, Madhya
Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, have made it possible to file an
e-FIR for reports of theft of vehicles, mobile phones, and documents where the
accused is unknown.
6. Bharatmala Pariyojana:
● It
is a new umbrella program aimed at improving the efficiency of the freight and
passenger movement across the country by filling essential infrastructure gaps.
7. Vehicle Disposal Policy:
● Older
automobiles pollute the environment 10 to 12 times more than newer vehicles and
pose risk to road safety.
8. Delhi Government’s “Good Samaritans” Policy:
● Monetary
incentive of Rs 2,000 and appreciation certificate will be given to people who help
road accident victims in the national capital.
9. The Foundation’s Zero-Fatality Corridor (ZFC)
programme:
● It
was deployed on the Mumbai-Pune
Expressway in 2016, helping bring down road crash fatalities by 52%, as of
2020.
● Similar
interventions were introduced in 2018 on the Old Mumbai-Pune Highway and helped
reduce the road crash fatalities on this stretch by 61%, as of 2021.
WAY FORWARD:
● Countries
should form transport policies in order to favor more sustainable modes of transport such as walking, cycling and using
public transport.
● Ensuring
the safety of all road users by improving laws and enforcement and making roads
safer through infrastructural modifications
such as raised platforms and safety humps, roundabouts, and optical
markings are adopted to reduce road accidents.
● The
vehicle manufacturers need to equip life
saving technologies in the communitarian vehicles. They also need to ensure
vehicular safety standards such as mandatory car crash standards and
anti-locking brake systems on heavy vehicles.
● The
government and the medical systems need to enhance emergency trauma care systems to save human lives. In a way, the
need to deploy quick response ambulances every 50 km on National Highways by
the National Highway Authority of India.
● Public campaign for road
safety through electronic and print media.
● Identification of black
spots and accident-prone areas and rectifying
them by the adoption of correct means.
● Improving
road accident data collection and proper database
management and carrying out road safety audits.
● Underage
drivers should be treated with zero tolerance. In India, strong punishments for
violations should be considered and cumulative penalties for recurrent
infringement should result in temporary license suspension or a permanent ban
on driving.
In
a way, to ensures road safety, need for multi-pronged strategy in India based
on the 4 “E’s i.e. Education (promoting
awareness), Engineering (safer road and vehicle infrastructure, including the
application of smart transportation), Enforcement of safety laws, and Emergency
care including trauma care.