shubha

Road safety should be treated as a public health issue as road accidents are turning to be a major public health problem in Kerala, according to the Director of the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (Natpac), T. Elangovan.

"Road accidents were assessed to be the ninth major cause of disease or injury in the world in 1990 as per international projections. The injuries or disease caused due to road accidents will be among the top three of leading diseases by the year 2020. Kerala has already attained this grim situation with heart diseases and cancer occupying the first and second spots," Mr. Elangovan told The Hindu .

Road safety affects disproportionately certain vulnerable group of road-users. Road safety is treated as a transport issue even after the number of accidents is on the rise. The time has come to treat this as a public health problem, as the health sector has a vital role to play amongst others in promoting and facilitating road safety, he said.
As many as 108 road accidents occurred on an average a day resulting in the death of at least eight persons and injuries or hospitalisation of 133 persons in the State. A total of 39,496 road accidents occurred in the State during 2003, causing death of 2,905 persons and injuries to 48,640, as per the latest road accident data. Nearly 60 per cent of the injuries sustained in road accidents were reported as serious or grievous which necessitated hospitalisation and the remaining 40 per cent were simple injuries that required only first aid and Out Patient treatment.

Mr. Elangovan said as many as 37 per cent of the accidents involved two-wheelers, 18 per cent autorickshaws, 19 per cent cars and jeeps and 13 per cent involved buses (private 5,000 and KSRTC 1,300). The economic loss was to the tune of Rs. 400 crores.

Kerala, with nearly 3 per cent of the country's population, has recorded about 10 per cent of the road accidents. The State has the third highest number of road accidents (39,496 in 2003) in the whole of the country after Maharashtra (75,000 accidents) and Tamil Nadu (42,500 accidents). The accident rate of Kerala is the highest in the country with 15 accidents per 1,000 vehicles, which is twice that of the all-India average, Mr. Elangovan said. Even bigger States such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh have reported far less number of road accidents compared to Kerala.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, the World Health Organisation has made "Road safety is no accident" as the focal theme for the World Health Day observed on April 7. The WHO now considers road accident as a major public health problem of epidemic proportions in developing countries and not as a transport problem.

manak

I have gone through to the post...It is a very important issue...It should be in Government agenda...As soon as you see a mistake and don't fix it, it becomes your mistake.

giridhar.vg

It is the shear lack of Road Engineering that is the cause of I would say 50% of the accidents. The remaining 50% would be divided into 25% the RTO's way of issuing license and 25% lack of law enforcement activites;
By saying this I'm not saying that as an individual I'm not responsible for what happens on the road; I am obliged to behave on road.
You might agree that it is taught on the schools that we have to walk on the right side of the road and the vehicles are to keep left side. to use Zebra cross while crossing the road, to use footpath and to walk one behind the other and not one beside the other while walking on the road.
When it comes to the licensing it is also the basic that we have to keep left, overtake thru the right, but not at curves and not in a manner that the one you are overtaking has to push the breaks; Give preference to the vehicle on your right while at cross roads;
If the people dont obey these; this can be acheived by engineering roads considering the phsycology of the people.
Any one in this forum will agree that thought there are traffic lights at several junctions no one strictly obeys it; I feel that a Round About would be more efficient than traffic light. Dont you think so?
There is No Doubt that a revolving door is a BEST option to control. The same thoughts have to be applied in Road Engineering when it comes to designing Indian Road; Traffic lights are for Obedient and Cultured people. we are far from being so.

manak

Be bright. Do it right. Obey traffic lights.

himanshu

Agree with you Manak...We are drivers, not bulls. We must obey the Traffic rules.

ruchi

Agree...

But how can pedestrian use zebra crossing to cross the road b'coz it is very common in our country that vehicles stooped on zebra crossing at the time of red light.

Here I want to mention few careless activities by Indian drivers n riders:

• Riding 3 people on two wheeler and not using the helmet
• Talking on s while driving or riding
• Not using the seat belts while driving
• Jumping red lights
• Pedestrian not using the subways to cross the road

Above mentioned mistakes are very commonly made in our country and these are treated verly lightly by us n as well as by traffic authorities.

We blame the traffic authorities for not doing their job properly but what about our job....DO WE FOLLOW TRAFFIC RULES PROPERLY???

giridhar.vg

What does the blinking Left Arrow mean for the traffic and what if its not blinking?

If any of you happened to pass by pattoor Junction, trivandrum; you will see if its Road Development or Curruption and the Degraded Road Engineering;

If you are travelling from Pettah to General Hospital; you know that at Pattoor Jn there is traffic light; One for straight flow; Left Flow and Right Flow; at once instance; only the Straight Flow will be on;

Consider this situation when there is one vehicle waiting for left turn and another waiting for right turn; And there are only two lanes; Doesnt the straight traffic come to a halt;

This is just one scenario; But are our Engineers so dump to do this?

Moreover I dont feel safe at any of the new intersections with traffic light; Either you may bump into some auto who consider Amber as Red and is on watch on the other side of the signal than to look to their front; Or you might be annoyed by the honk from behind if there happen to be a private bus or auto behind you. Its truly horrible to be honest.

Am I wrong to understand that we should stop if the arrow is not blinking and we are allowed to move only when the arrow is blinking; Is a left turn always free left flow; Then shouldnt the arrow be blinking always for left?
What I have noticed it that; When there is no indication to turn left; It has turned Green for the pedestrian at that side; But NO ONE cares of the blinking LEFT TURN OR THE NO SIGNAL FOR LEFT TURN.

Please provide right info if you have from any source; Yes I understand; there is no proper source; But after a long search I got one; http://www.chandigarhtrafficpolice.org/index.php developed by ArriveSafe.com. I couldnt get the answer for this doubt though.

Please correct me if you have valid information.

road runner

By the way, India holds the dubious distinction of registering the highest number of road accidents in the world. According to the experts at the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NTPRC) the number of road accidents in India is three times higher than that prevailing in developed countries. I don’t put the blame entirely on government. Definitely we people have to change our attitude towards the traffic rules.

dlguru

obviously left turn are free turn because it will not affect the traffic movements from other direction of the same junction.But where traffic study reveals that the left free turn affect traffic movement from any direction or chances are there for road incident ,it is usually not allowing free left turn.If no blinking light is not there in a junction it means that free left turn is not allowed,and such case ped crossing are allowed.

ufoufo

What is needed in kerala is stringent action.Not discussion or research.They are ofcourse required but not now.It is the time for action.In kerala few months back ,it is learnt,while i was travelling in car from cochin to palakkad that law enforcing is very stringent.When i asked the driver he told me that state ownd motor vehicle department has purchased lot of radars and vehicles and they are patrolling particular stretch of the road round the clock.Wht is irritating him was his co driver was booked by this officers and charged with over speed in his last trip to cochin.Intrestingly i enquired about this development ,which was not seen any where in india,when i came back to cochin.It is under stood that that patrolling was very effective and alas....it reduced accident rate in the busy naional hiway sector to very low.That kind of actrion is required.and the state must evolve a plan to utilize tere officials well in the intrest of public

ufoufo

Majority of road accidents are occured due to the fault of road users.

salimjacob

[QUOTE=giridhar.vg;588]


A Blinking arrow to the left means that you can proceede to the left, but u hve to watch out for other vechicles also. You do not have the right of access only to your self, others also will be using that lane - may be from the opposite direction.