ROAD SAFETY – SOCIAL ISSUE
News: Safer
roads for a greener, more sustainable environment
What's in the news?
● The
impact of road safety goes a long way. In addition to ensuring an easier,
comfortable, and more secure commute, safer roads also have a positive impact
on the environment.
Key takeaways:
● In
2021, India reported 4,03,116 crashes, each of which adversely impacted the
environment in various ways and in different degrees.
Environmental impact of Road accidents:
1. Toxic metals in Vehicles:
● Most
vehicles contain toxic metals such as lead,
mercury, cadmium or hexavalent chromium, which are detrimental to the
environment.
● Fuel
and fluid leaks are seen at crash sites. Severe road crashes lead to automobile
wreckage, which becomes a part of unusable end-of-life vehicles.
2. Speeding limits and saves fuels:
● One
of the biggest factors for road crashes is speeding. In 2020 alone, speeding
was responsible for 91,239 road crash fatalities, comprising 69.3% of all road
crash deaths registered.
● Speeding
has consistently been responsible for over 60% of all road crash fatalities in
India in the last five years.
● Simulation
exercises in Europe have demonstrated that cutting motorway speed limits even
by 10 km/h can deliver 12% to 18% fuel
savings for current technology passenger cars, along with a significant
reduction in pollutant emissions, particularly Nitrogen Oxides and particulate
matter (PM) output, from diesel vehicles.
● Consequently,
several governments globally have reduced speed limits to prevent crashes and lower air pollution.
● In
India, the Zero-Fatality Corridor
solution for road safety by the SaveLIFE Foundation (SLF) takes environmental
sustainability seriously and focuses on reducing speeding through advanced
engineering and enforcement technologies.
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 surfaced/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 equipments.
● Usage
of mobile phones while driving as we are seeing often during our travel.
● Consumption
of alcohol (Drunk and drive).
● Rash driving
by youngsters in the name of enjoyments.
● 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 automobile sector and parallel rise of the Indian middle class has increased
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 on 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 causing higher
fatality rate.
2. Economic losses
- The road accidents causing loss to 3
percent of the 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, helped 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 licence 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.