harsh

Terrorism Deaths Vs Road Accident Deaths in India

Which is a bigger Killer?

After the Mumbai attacks, our government (due to immense media pressure) seems to be talking a lot about the steps being taken to avoid such an attack again and to curtail terrorist activities in our country.

Well, we all know that it is mere government propaganda (as the elections are near) and the new government will focus more on making mullah with 26/11 taking a back seat.

People will continue to die and terrorists will strike again as our country has never been taken seriously by the world community (especially by our neighbour) and we just come across as a lazy nation with a soft stand on every issue that is important to us. (Thanks to our governments).

Have a look at some excerpts from an article from the TOI team, “Where security is a paper tiger”.

“Slackness of successive governments in beefing up internal security reduced India to being vulnerable to terrorism of all hues. It took a 26/11 to finally jolt the political class into action”.

“Overall, taking all forms of violence together, 2004-08 witnessed 25,042 incidents and 6,646 casualties compared to 36,259 incidents and 11,714 casualties during 1999-2003.”

“Security of citizens is a cornerstone of any democracy, along with liberty and equality.”

Now, let us look at some statistics of casualties due to road accidents in India.

TOI published an article on 'Strategy on road safety must' on 7th March, 2009.

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%, 28% and 5% of road accident victims every year respectively, the accident rates will greatly be controlled,'' said the joint commissioner of police (traffic), at a meet on road safety.

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.

Mumbai’s 26/11 killed 195 people.

About 250 people die in road accidents in India everyday!

SO THERE IS A 26/11 EVERYDAY ON INDIAN ROADS.

AND WHAT IS THE DAMN GOVERNMENT DOING ABOUT IT?

Everyday we come across a story about someone’s loved one dying on the road and just ignore it, focusing on our day to day life.

One day, it could be anyone of us! Someone from our family; some loved one!

Then What?

smera

Authorities have simply turned a blind eye towards the on growing Traffic Menace

There is no such thing as “Safety” on our Indian Roads. Hundreds of people succumb to death and countless others are injured everyday.

Be it the faulty road designs, the way people drive, poor pedestrians, animals loitering or else, Indian roads have become totally unsafe.

Our country was never prepared to grow so fast and digest the incoming traffic of vehicles.

There are dozens of other problems in our great country and it seems no one is bothered about the biggest EPIDEMIC in the making.

I wish the political parties had addressed “ROAD SAFETY” in their Manifesto.

overseas

Everyone out there loves to crack jokes about the Indian Traffic!

Mostly our beloved overseas citizens are the ones who love to make fun of our traffic systems over a drink or a general chat about India.

Instead of passing/forwarding jokes, maybe we can come out with some way of generating awareness amongst people on Road Safety.

Ten years back, India was a country of Maruti, Hyundai and Mahindra. Today, every car manufacturer has entered the Indian market.

So dear foreign citizens, do you have any advice for our authorities and the Indian citizens?

Remember; while you maybe overseas, you might have a loved one in India, driving on the deadly Indian Roads.

Your inputs will be much appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

safeindianroads

I agree with the points. I have riased the point at various forums. Wrote to authorities also

More than 1.2 million people are killed in Road Accidents, worldwide , every year. 3 to 4 % of Gross National Product is lost in Road Accidents. One child is killed in Road Accidents, every three minutes in the World. Total worldwide death toll of Tsunami of 2004 was about 230,000. But the annual worldwide death toll of Road Accidents is 1,200,000 !!! i.e. more than five times the Tsunami toll . Total number of annual road accidents deaths is more than the total population of Mauritius. Deaths more than 5 Tsunamis are wiping out lives from the world every year, in the form of Road Accidents. Nobody is noticing it !!! Few hundreds are killed by terrorism every year. Countries are spending billions and trillions of dollars to fight terrorism. We had a war against terrorism. Thousands of soldiers sacrificed their lives. But nobody is taking road Accidents seriously. It i stime for Government all over the world to declare a War against Road Accidents !!!