In 2016, 17 people died on our roads every hour

The Union road transport ministry under Nitin Gadkari is supposed to be one of the best performing ministries in the Modi government, but the just released ‘Road accidents in India – 2016’ report shows that as far as road safety is concerned, nothing much has changed on the ground in terms of reducing accidents and fatalities. But policy decisions taken by the ministry and continuous upgradation of national highways could go a long way in improving the situation in the long run.

That there were 4.8 lakh accidents on Indian roads, resulting in injuries to 4.9 lakh people and 1.5 lakh deaths – or 17 every hour – in 2016, the highest in the world, taking into account the ratio of vehicles to accidents, is unacceptable. That the highways maintaineThe Union road transport ministry under Nitin Gadkari is supposed to be one of the best performing ministries in the Modi government, but the just released ‘Road accidents in India – 2016’ report shows that as far as road safety is concerned, nothing much has changed on the ground in terms of reducing accidents and fatalities.The Union road transport ministry under Nitin Gadkari is supposed to be one of the best performing ministries in the Modi government, but the just released ‘Road accidents in India – 2016’ report shows that as far as road safety is concerned, nothing much has changed on the ground in terms of reducing accidents and fatalities.d by the National Highways Authority of India accounted for 29.6% of all road accidents and 34.5% of all fatalities -- and those figures have gone up over the previous year -- indicate that the efforts needed to put in place the required safety and response mechanisms have been painfully slow or non-existent. It is well-known that fatalities can be drastically reduced if accident victims get medical treatment within the ‘golden hour’. So, where is the much-trumpeted pan-India trauma care network where there would be a designated centre to treat a victim within 50 km of any accident site? Why is it that even after identifying 789 ‘black spots’ across the country where the maximum accidents are witnessed, only 140 of them have been rectified so far? And, considering that two-wheeler riders account for 34.8% of fatal accidents, why isn’t there a concerted effort to improve public transport and discourage the use of two-wheelers?

The accident figures for Karnataka, and Bengaluru, are equally frightening as they stand in the third place. The astonishing fact about Bengaluru is that its vehicle population has more than doubled in the last 10 years to over 70 lakhs and the average speed on its roads has nosedived to a single digit, and yet the number of accidents remains high. Potholes and faulty speed-breakers accounted for 2,324 and 3,396 deaths respectively at the all-India level. Specific figures for Bengaluru in these two aspects are not available, but the poor quality and maintenance of city roads suggests they are quite high. A Karnataka Road Safety Authority with statutory powers – the likes of which neighbouring Kerala instituted a decade ago – is still in the offing. Hopefully, whenever it is set up, it will have adequate funds and technical manpower to improve road standards and safety in the state.