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10th September 2024 (12 Topics)

India Status Report on Road Safety 2024

Context

The "India Status Report on Road Safety 2024," prepared by the TRIP Centre at IIT Delhi, highlights the ongoing challenges India faces in improving road safety. Despite advancements in other sectors, the report reveals a troubling picture of road traffic fatalities and injuries.

What does the Report reveal?

  • High Fatality Rates: Road traffic injuries are a major public health issue in India. In 2021, they were the 13th leading cause of death and the 12th leading cause of health loss. In states like Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh, road traffic injuries are among the top 10 causes of health loss.
  • Disparities across States: There is a significant variation in road safety across India. Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Chhattisgarh have some of the highest road traffic death rates, while West Bengal and Bihar report much lower rates. Six states—Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu—account for nearly half of all traffic fatalities.
  • Vulnerable Road Users: Pedestrians, cyclists, and motorized two-wheeler riders are the most common victims of road accidents. Trucks are frequently involved in fatal crashes. Despite the potential for helmets to reduce fatalities and injuries, less than 50% of motorized two-wheeler riders wear them in most states.
  • Comparing globally: In 1990, an Indian was 40% more likely to die in a road accident than someone in countries like Sweden. By 2021, this disparity had increased to 600%.

What makes India’s roads unsafe?

  • Accidents and deaths on Indian roads are mainly due tofaulty road engineering, defective detailed project reports and the bad design of junctions coupled with inadequate signage and road markings.
  • India’s current road safety data systems are insufficient for effective policymaking.
  • Absence of a national crash-level database: Road safety statistics are compiled from police station records and aggregated at various levels before being published. This system allows only basic analyses and often contains inaccuracies.
  • Many states lack comprehensive road safety measures. Basic elements like traffic calming, proper markings, and signage are insufficient. Helmet usage in rural areas is particularly low, and trauma care facilities are inadequate.
  • In India, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the National Highways Authority of India are responsible for setting safety standards and those assessing compliance. Legislative loopholes enable design failures to slip through the cracks because there are no independent audits.
    • The 2007 Sundar Committee on Road Safetyhas recommended separating the entities responsible for setting safety standards and those assessing compliance.
  • Road Infrastructure heavily favours motorised vehicles over non-motorised transport. Pedestrians are relegated to the periphery of road networks or forced to compete for space with motor vehicles, which puts them at grave risk of injuries or fatalities.

Government Measures for Road Safety

India has the second largest road network in the world, with about 63.32 lakh km of roads as of March 2019. 

  • Motor Vehicle Amendment (MVA) Act 2019: The Act amended Motor Vehicles Act of 1988. It includes inter-alia, provisions like stiff hikes in penalties for traffic violations, electronic monitoring of the same, enhanced penalties for juvenile driving, etc.
  • Vehicle Scrapping Policy: It provides for creating an ecosystem to phase out older, unfit polluting vehicles.
  • National Road Safety Policy:  Based on the recommendations of the Sunder Committee, the Policy outlines the policy initiatives to be framed/taken by the Government at all levels to improve road safety activities in the country.
  • Road Safety Audit (RSA) for all National Highways (NHs) have been made mandatory through third-party auditors at all stages, including design, construction, operation, and maintenance.
  • Electronic Detailed Accident Report (e-DAR) to establish a central repository for reporting, management, and analysis of road accident data across the nation.
  • Good Samaritan Law: MoRTH has published rules for the protection of Good Samaritan.
  • India State Support Programme for Road Safety by World Bank: The World Bank has approved a USD 250 million loan for seven States under which a single accident reporting number will be set up to better manage post-crash events. 
  • Rajasthan became the first State in the country to adopt an action plan for road safety for the next 10 years.
  • Kerala’s Good Governance: Kerala achieved zero deaths in the network of roads, including the narrow hill stretches, leading to the Sabarimala temple. Kerala’s interventions saw zero road accident deaths for two consecutive years, beginning 2019-20, owing to sustained intervention by the state government—a first in India.
Global initiatives on road safety
  • Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety, 2015
  • Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030
  • Bloomberg Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) 2020-2025
What needs to be done?
  • Scale Up Road Safety Interventions: There is need to prioritize and expand road safety measures across states.
  • Establish a National Database: Government must create a comprehensive national database for fatal crashes, which should be publicly accessible. This would improve the understanding of road safety risks and the effectiveness of interventions.
  • Implement Targeted Strategies: There is need to develop tailored strategies to address the unique road safety challenges faced by different states, focusing on areas such as helmet usage, traffic management, and trauma care.
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