singh001

250 people die in road accidents in India everyday

About 250 people die in road accidents in India everyday, which is equivalent to a plane crash having no survivors.

In Delhi alone, nearly 2,000 people lose their lives in road accidents each year equal to the number of people dying of heart attack or cancer. But little attention is paid to road safety in daily lives. Experts feel it is important to deal with the subject and draft out a strategy to bring down the fatalities on roads.

As 95% of the road accident victims comprise of slow moving vehicles and pedestrians, there is a need to protect this category of road users. "If we provide a safe passage to pedestrians, two-wheeler riders and cyclists on our roads, who comprise 52%, 2% and 5% of road accident victims every year respectively, the accident rates will greatly be controlled,'' said SN Shrivastava, joint commissioner of police (traffic), at a meet on road safety organized by the alumnus of IIT Delhi and Kharagpur in the capital on Saturday.

The main requirement is to provide these categories of road users with adequate facilities like proper footpaths, zebra crossings, foot overbridges, subways and also dedicated cycle tracks. The other factor, he added, was controlling trucks and heavy vehicles which comprise a large percentage of the aggressors (66.3%).

Another important factor is roads, which also need to have safety features that bring down the impact of collisions. "When we pay all the taxes that the government demands and also pay whatever rate of fuel quoted to us, why are roads not up to the mark,'' questioned TK Malhotra, president of Auto Association of Upper India, who was also on the panel.

TOI, 7th March, 2009