Surjeet Singh Panwar works for the Uttarakhand Police Services, and has vast experience in dealing with mega crowd & traffic management events like Kumbh and Kanwad.
The article discusses road accidents as disaster of silent nature. Highlighting the loss of life and national resources it discusses the management and mitigation of road crashes through the recognized methods of the four ‘E’s of road safety- Education, Enforcement, Engineering, and Emergency care.
Human life has been eased by various means of transport. However, it is also the major killer of the human species in recent times. The concern of road safety has been highlighted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself twice in his monthly dialogue ‘Mann ki Baat’ with the nation in July
2015 and January 2021. His 2021 speech appealed to people to be “active stakeholders” in road safety activities to save lives. He raised concern over the World Health Organization data that at least one out of 10 people killed on roads across the world is from India. Similarly, in July 2015, he expressed concern over a person dying in a road crash every four minutes and urged every family to inform youngsters about the importance of road safety rules.
More than one million people worldwide are killed in automobile crashes each year. Indian roads have reported 1.5 lakh casualties in five lakh road accidents annually. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 4,03,116 road accidents took place in 2021 compared to 3,54,796 in 2020, claiming 1,55,622 lives in 2021 and 1,33,201 in 2020. It was a massive 16.8 percent increase in the loss of life. Apart from it, 17993 rail accidents and 1550 accidents on railway crossings take this tally to 4,22,659 in 2021 compared to 3,68,828 in 2020 as far as total volume of traffic-related accidents is concerned. Another grave fallout is the number of severely injured; that is 3,71,884 in 2021. Mercedes Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI) have identified some of its major reasons. It says 60% of the deaths occurred on five percent highways. Poor road conditions, insufficient maintenance of roads, and violation of traffic rules are some of the prominent defaulters. Overspeeding is the major culprit, claiming 56 percent of the total deaths on the road. MBRDI report states that in 2020, 10,416 lives were lost due to overloading and overhanging materials over the vehicle. Similarly, 15,146 people lost their lives because of not putting up seat belts during travel
According to a report on “Road Accidents in India- 2020” prepared by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH), the Government of India
1,20,806 fatal accidents took place on Indian roads in 2020; out of which 43,412 happened on national highways, 30,171 on state highways and 47,223 on other roads. The mortality rate is very high in road accidents on Indian roads as 36 lost their lives in every 100 road accidents in 2020 in comparison to 33 in 2019. More serious is the loss of young force as 69 percent of the people met with these accidents were in the age group of 18-45 years, and it goes up to 87.4 percent when it comes to the working age group of 18-60 years. Another alarming fact is that every year the number of youths in the working age group meeting with these accidents is going up. Another expert on road safety Ravi G Bhatia says “Given that the most vulnerable population is around 34 years of age, the economic and social cost of these accidents is high. A United Nations study estimates that traffic crashes cost 3-5% of GDP.” In this way, road hazards come as one of the significant man-made disasters, and it needs serious consideration to deal with it in this way to minimize it. The United Nations General Assembly has set an ambitious target of halving the global number of deaths and injuries from road crashes by the year 2030. As many of observers visualize road crashes as a silent form of disaster, the National Road Safety Council of India has stressed the efficacy of the four ‘E’s as disaster mitigation and management tools of road safety. Four ‘E’s of road safety have been identified globally as -(1) Education (2)Enforcement (3) Engineering- of (A) roads as well as (B) vehicles; and (4) Emergency Care.
EDUCATION
Various awareness programmes on road safety has been propagated by the government of India through departmental advertising campaigns, traffic
awareness campaigns in schools, short movies and involvement of NGO’s. The government has been undertaking various publicity measures through TV spots/Radio spots, cinema slides, distribution of posters, books on road safety signage & signs, organizing Road Safety Week, Seminars, and Exhibitions to raise road safety awareness among the general public. But despite these measures, a noticeable reduction in accidents figures is not achieved. One of the reasons behind it is the gap between the target audience and the messaging platform. Most of the traffic awareness programs are city-centric although 70% of the Indian population resides in non- urban areas. It is one of the reasons that majority of accidents happen out of the city limits as the people on these roads are the one who have been deprived of the road learnings. For some of the lucky purses speed is the thrill and some hail from such a socio-economic background where there is no time and scope for traffic literacy campaigns. A lot of accidents are mostly by heavy drivers who come from an unorganized ecosystem and drive continuously to maximize their trips. It is time to add technology for driver’s education or training right from the issuance of driving licenses to periodical upskilling. Intel recently designed one program of drivers training. Education of the technological development in the vehicular mechanism and roads need to be informed to the end user also. There are instances where truck drivers have put their engine off on sloppy roads just to save fuel while running the vehicle on neutral mode, however their ignorance of non-working of steering or brake in new electronic heavy vehicles caused havoc for other users of the roads as well as for themselves also. Similarly, new express highways have seen accidents involving bursting of tires on speed above 120 to 140 kilometers per hour for a particular time period as air within tires expand on these roads beyond a particular speed limit, and majority of Indian drivers fill more air in the tires than the prescribed limit.
ENFORCEMENT
In the direction of strict and uniform motor vehicle regulatory laws Motor Vehicles Act was amended in 2019. Further, the new traffic rules 2020 increased the amount of penalty for the violation of traffic rules multifold. Violation of the driving license rules can be fined up to the amount of one lakh rupees. Not only the amount of penalties increased, but the provision of three years jail for the guardians or owners of the vehicle in case of minor driver is another stringent provision of new act. New provisions also make penalty up to one lakh rupees and vehicle amendment or replacement provisions for faulty motor vehicle manufacturers. Under the guidelines from the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee and new legal framework provision of driving license suspension is being implemented in the nine categories of traffic rules violation over speeding, overloading, carrying passengers in a goods carrier, drunken driving, use of mobile, driving in the wrong direction against moving traffic and in case of two wheelers’ without helmet & double pillion riding, etc. However, most of the drivers continue driving during the suspension period in absence of any effective database with the enforcement agencies. Provision of fresh driving test for faulty drivers after the three months suspension period and permanent recall of driving license in case of repeatedly failing the test is need of the hour as most of the old license holders have hardly given real driving test in absence of any driving test lanes or test simulators till recently. Most of the regional transport departments are reporting sudden spurt in the lines for new driving license among the youngsters since 2019; which shows good impact of stringent laws and equally effective enforcement.
ENGINEERING
(A) ROAD ENGINEERING
Safety goes hand in hand with smooth traffic operation. Disrupting the smooth flow of traffic increases the probability of collisions. Role of engineering
in road safety is applying engineering principles in order to identify road design or traffic management improvements that will reduce the number and severity of road accidents in the most cost effective manner. India’s Ministry of Road Transport & Highways is working with a planned and holistic approach to enhance the road safety which involves measurement & documentation of road and traffic environment as a basis for design and implementation of rectification measures. It also takes consideration of the feedback on the effectiveness of the measures and collective actions by all the stake holders. A protocol has been notified for identification of road accident black Spots based on combined criteria of number of fatalities and accidents and their rectification. Road accident black spot is literally not a spot but is a short stretch of road of about 500 meters length; where five accidents involving serious injuries/fatalities took place during the past three calendar years. In most of the states police and transport authorities are preparing investigation report of every major road accident and Highways authorities are supposed to look into it to eradicate the black spots. The Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD) is an initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India and is funded by the World Bank, with objective to improve road safety in the country. India has 1,51,019 km of National Highways as of March 2021, despite all the modifications of the Indian highways and scheme like iRAD highways constituted 2.7 % of India’s total road network, but carried about 40% of road traffic, as of 2013. Similarly, there is provision of magisterial enquiries in cases of major road accidents of public service vehicles in many states including Uttarakhand. However increasing number of road accidents indicate reality at the ground level is not as glossy as desired under the iRAD. Road safety audit is one of the major missing link in the successful road engineering module. Safe and smooth conversion points of different variety of roads and means of road transport is still an issue of concern as far as the safe ride on Indian roads is concerned. It is estimated that 10 to 40 types of vehicle run on the Indian roads at a time. Another nightmare of Indian drivers are dark Indian roads as most of the convergence points and non-national highways are not properly illuminated. Meeting point of two toll-roads particularly at state boundaries are also most unconstructed-unattended one as operators at the both sides does not consider it under their mandate of road maintenance.
(B) VEHICULAR ENGINEERING
Since road traffic fatalities most commonly result from injuries incurred during crashes, automobile safety research has been focused on injury biomechanics, structural crashworthiness, crash injury epidemiology, human behavior and ergonomics to improve protection for vehicle occupants when crashes occur. Some of the fatal accidents of the celebrities like former president Giani Zail Singh, Ex-Union Minister Rajesh Pilot, Indian Union Minister Gopinath Munde, Industrialist Cyrus Mistry and recently cricketer Rishabh Pant has posed the question mark over the crashworthiness and application of safety measures even in costlier category of vehicles in India. Despite registering lesser car accidents than the US and Japan, India recorded higher deaths than both the nations. Lax vehicular safety norms in India have been criticized for this. Until recently, car manufactures were not mandated to have safety features like ABS (Anti-lock Braking System), seat belt warning, driver side airbags, among others. Globally, two large trends are visible: one, car makers adhere to safety norms, thanks to stringent laws. And second, companies race for vehicular safety and advertise it as a selling point to customers. In contrast, customers in India hardly consider vehicle safety standards when making a purchase. Taking consideration of all these factors, the government of India is set to launch new safety star ratings for cars in India known as Bharat NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) from April 2023. The Bharat NCAP standard has been aligned with global benchmarks and it’s beyond the minimum regulatory requirements. It aims at setting automotive safety standards in India based on structural integrity, adult and child occupant safety and safety assisted technologies, which will be used to rate the vehicles through a star rating. The government is also working on the automotive standards to deal with the issue of drowsiness of drivers. Union road transport Minister Nitin Gadkari recently directed the officials to work on a fatigue warning system to detect drowsiness and to begin with commercial vehicles. Issue of spurious and expired vehicle parts are also one of the hazards of the roads, which still needs to be fixed.
EMERGENCY CARE
People in need of trauma care, after a road crash, are most likely to survive if they receive definitive care within the first hour (Golden hour) after the
crash. Care of injuries after a crash is extremely time sensitive. The aim of the definitive post-crash care is to avoid preventable death and disability, limit the severity of the injury and the suffering caused by it, and ensure the crash survivor’s best possible recovery. The public health system of India is not well equipped to handle the mounting numbers of road traffic accident cases. Emergency trauma care services is fragmented in India. Free of cost Ambulance facilities provided by the government are neither well-resourced nor staffed by trained personnel capable of managing post-crash care. In India, due to inadequate trauma care system as compared to countries with well-established systems, treatable Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are six times more likely to fail. However it is the mandatory for the doctor on duty in the hospital to immediately attend the injured person and render medical aid or treatment without waiting for any procedural formalities. The Supreme Court had long back stressed in case of Parmanand Katara that every injured citizen brought for medical treatment should instantaneously be given medical aid to preserve life and thereafter the procedural criminal law should be allowed to operate in order to avoid negligent death. As operation of toll plaza and BOT (Built-operate-transfer) mode of highways are becoming the main trend of roads, the agency concerned to maintain the particular highway need to be made legally binding for emergency medical care. For road safety emergency care a new booster has emerged from Ministry of Civil Aviation as it is working on a plan to make helipads near highways at regular intervals to ensure speedier evacuation of accident victims within Golden Hour. In collaboration with Ministry of Road Transport & Highways it is going to start a pilot project at AIIMS Rishikesh under ‘Project Sanjeevani’. The mandate is to send a helicopter near a road accident victim within 20 minutes of first call, carrying a stretcher and a doctor.
As traffic crash casualties are being visualized as a man-made disaster the mitigation methods are being identified for a safer road journey. Positives
like ‘Good Samaritan’ are incorporated in the legal framework as part of the Motor Vehicle Act and Central motor vehicle rules (Rule 168). In the
recent case of Rishabh Pant driver-conductor duo of Haryana State Roadways were felicitated as Good Samaritan by the authorities at Haryana and Uttarakhand for helping Pant to get out of the crashed BMW in time. National as well as social media has also highlighted good practices of traffic self-control videos of Mizoram traffic lanes. Data sanctity of the crash causes has been challenged time and again, however upshot of the foregoing is that accident data at present is sourced mainly from the Police Departments not in India, but world over. The Police is the first responder in accidents and is considered the best source of data even though there are other sources like Hospitals and State Transport Departments. Even internationally, as per WHO’s Global Status Report, almost 50% of the Reporting countries sourced their data from police with 7% sourcing from Health Departments and another 11%sourcing the same from Transport Departments. With the coming up of AI (artificial intelligence) tools more CCTV data is available, government intervention like iRAD could be game changer. Traditional wisdom is also helpful in the road safety scenario which should not be ignored. Seatbelts are most sought-after particularly after the tragic death of ex-Tata scion Cyrus Mistry, however in case of hills a vehicle falling into the gorge during an accident takes away all the passengers with it; tied with seatbelt. Similarly, water bottle and pots can create disasters on a hill road as it can slip under the brake pedal to jam it in a moving vehicle on a downside journey.
With the liberalization, privatization and globalization mass regular transition of people has become regular scenario. In view of concept of global
village surface transport is expanding and it is bound to expand more & faster. With more robust economic activities people are moving out of traditional approach of 20 to 30 kilometers radius limit of businesses and want to be back in equally short time span. Two-way approach of making safe vehicle as well as safe roads need faster technological integration of artificial intelligence. Over speeding is still major culprit of road accidents. It needs compulsory speed governor in the private vehicles as well as on the roads like automatic fast-tag system. Road system need to be of forgiving with crash barrier of life saving nature as well as vehicles with safety balloons. Concept of separate freight corridor between mega cities is not only cost effective for goods transport but equally useful for time and fatigue management of drivers of heavy vehicles resulting in lesser involvement of these giants in crashes. To make the future roads accident free futuristic urban planning must be at least a decade ahead of increasing rate of traffic volume unlike current scenario of not able to cater to existing needs. Urban planners and road engineers must have dialogue with police and other transport authorities before and during the implementation phase. Though India has leaped forward towards metro and ropeways, integrating it with roads and railways, safe mode of public service transport with proper civic amenities will certainly put off the pressure from the existing roads network. Road safety and traffic management is a science blended with law and traditional wisdom. It needs to be given its due if life on roads is to be honored and to be made safe. (The views expressed by the author are solely his personal and not representative of his organization.)
