Road Safety - India Needs To Raise The Bar

Let me give you a brief insight into Indianand experience.
roadways data, from 300,000 vehicles on a roadAnother area which again contributes to large
network of 400,000 kilometers in 1951, thenumber of casualties is lack of life saving
number of vehicles has gone up nearly a 170mechanisms like airbags, crash sensors and
times till 2000, whereas the road network hascrumple zones in Indian road traffic. These
expanded by only nine times.mechanisms have proved very successful in
Along with rapid increase in country's populationsaving precious lives involved in road accidents, in
the vehicle population also rises at an alarmingother parts of the world. Such safety systems
rate. It has been estimated that by 2050, theremust be made mandatory for vehicles in India to
will be over 267 million vehicles on Indian roads.enhance Road Traffic safety in India.
Does India have the sufficient roads toHowever, in a country like India which is primarily
accommodate so many vehicles? Needless to sayruled by bureaucrats implementing such projects
roads are becoming overcrowded and accidentsand rules are easier said then done. What we
are inevitable under such conditions. Of theneed is an independent and inviolable safety
worldwide annual average of 700,000 roadregulator vested with sufficient powers to
accidents, 10 per cent occur in India.mandate rules of Road safety in India. All the
Its big time that Indian authorities should begin tostakeholders, the government, the insurance
realize the importance of employing more fundsindustry and the manufacturers must come
to build a well designed accident-proof transporttogether to provide necessary funds for creation
system with sufficient amount of road network.of world-class testing and research facilities to
It is their prime duty to save precious human livesenhance the standard of driving in India in all
by taking all possible measures and tools availableaspects.
at their disposal - through technologies, studies