On the road: Flawed design results in lost lives

Faulty road engineering, poor compliance with safety guidelines and delayed medical attention have made roads unsafe in the country

Hubballi: After two years of putting off their annual get-together due to Covid, 15 childhood friends from Davangere planned a trip to Goa in 2021 to reminisce about their school days and make fresh memories. The mini-bus with 15 women, a driver and a cleaner was filled with laughter and music till an overloaded tipper, which was trying to overtake a lorry, on a narrow national highway near Dharwad, collided with them head-on. The impact was so strong that seven passengers were killed on the spot and three others breathed their last in hospitals in the next few hours.

Asha Betur (51), one of the seven survivors of the tragic incident, is still haunted by the accident. “Along with the pain in my left hand and shoulder, the fear of that collision still makes me unable to travel long distances,” she says.

After losing so many close friends, the surviving members of the group have put an end to the annual get-togethers, even though the group would meet religiously ever since they passed out of the school two-and-a-half decades ago.

This mishap is a classic example of why many Indian highways and roadways are considered death traps. The Bengaluru-Pune Highway (National Highway 48) is a four-lane road.

However, the by-pass between Hubballi-Dharwad, where the accident occurred, is a two-lane stretch. Several experts had pointed to this stretch, identifying that the pathway was unscientifically built.

Additionally, the driver of the tipper was sleep-deprived and had been behind the wheel for a continuous eight hours. While medical professionals were able to reach the victims within the ‘golden hour’, they could not save three of the preventable deaths. The first responders were not fully aware of how to rescue them. Thousands of families in the state have lost someone to road accidents. Karnataka, for the last five years, has been ranked in the top five states in the country with the highest number of road accidents and casualties.

According to a reply in the Lok Sabha, Karnataka has 551 black spots. Black spots are places where accidents occur due to bad engineering. The state also has 26 hot spots — where at least five accidents occur annually. Hot spots are the places where accidents take place regularly.

On average, 10,689 people were killed per year in road accidents in Karnataka in the past five years. In India, on average 1.37 lakh people lose their lives every year. Last year recorded the highest (11,702) road accident deaths so far in Karnataka.

The Hubballi-Dharwad by-pass, which is now being developed as a 10-lane road, along with Bengaluru-Mysuru, Bengaluru-Nelamangala-Tumakuru, Hassan-Mangaluru, Chitradurga-Hosapete, Chitradurga-Harihar, Mysuru-Madikeri stretches report a high number of road accidents.

Pronab Mohanty, former Additional Director General of Police, in his foreword to the report ‘Road accidents in Karnataka 2022’ says these high figures call for better planning and safe design of roads, road intersections and well-coordinated efforts from the stakeholders. Simultaneously, stakeholders, including law enforcement agencies, the National Highways Authority of India, the Public Works Department and other civic organisations like the town municipalities need to have more say in road design and construction.

In 2015, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), Nitin Gadkari said that by 2020, his ministry would like to halve road accidents and fatalities in India by improving road infrastructure, incorporating safety measures and introducing stricter rules to prevent such casualties. On the contrary, India has witnessed, on a rough estimate, an 11% spike in road accidents year-on-year and a 9% hike in fatalities.

Experts blame the increasing number of accidents and resulting deaths in India on four major reasons — bad road behaviour, flawed road design and engineering, weak enforcement of traffic rules and lack of rapid response in case of tragedy.

Professor Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Centre of Excellence for Road Safety, IIT Madras, says India should work on the 5-Es: engineering (road and vehicle), emergency care, enforcement, education and at the thought level, empathy for all stakeholders.

The Road Accidents in India (RAI) reports, which form the base for National Crime Records Bureau reports, also include some worrying numbers. Of all fatalities in the country in 2022, 45.5% of the victims were driving two-wheelers, 19.5% were pedestrians, 14.1% were car passengers and 8.8% were truck or lorry drivers.

Road type 

Ashwini Bagga, a Jaipur-based road safety expert, says India has been adding new highways and expressways over the last eight to 10 years at a fast pace. “While the government is claiming that one can reach from point X to Y within the stipulated time, what it is not enforcing on the ground is the speed at which one should drive on highways. These roads are not meant to drive beyond the posted speed limit,” he says.

National and state highways constitute only 4.9% of the total 63.32 lakh km of road networks in India, yet they witnessed 56.1% (2.58 lakh) of road crashes and almost 61% (1.07 lakh) of all the road crash fatalities in the country.

“Road accidents are not a result of one error but a chain of events. Understanding the speed of automobiles and responding to it has transformed us within a generation. Probably we will evolve to respond in estimating the speeds of vehicles while using a road. While scientific road alignment is paramount, what is more important is human behaviour on the road, without which it is impossible to bring down the casualties,” Balasubramanian said.

Dr Sreenivaas Puppalaa, Deputy Transport Commissioner, Adilabad, Telangana and a certified professional in road traffic crash investigation and accident reconstruction, blames bad road behaviour as one of the major reasons for road accidents in India. 

Overtaking, rash driving, wrong-side driving, driving without wearing helmets or seat belts, and not following traffic rules lead to road accidents, he says. Last year, 62.6% of road accidents were caused due to overspeeding. Dangerous, careless driving or overtaking contributed to 24.7% of road accidents.

An increase in penalties has not proved to be a deterrent for habitual offenders, he says. “The only way to curb rash driving and unauthorised driving (without a license) is by confiscating vehicles, suspending licenses for some period and prosecuting them in courts,” he says. 

“We need to use technology to ensure stricter implementation of rules. We need to put in a mechanism that ensures periodic evaluation of drivers,” says Puppalaa.

A retired regional transport officer (RTO) in Karnataka says the majority of motorists consider driving or riding as non-formal learning. In contrast, it is a skill that has to be practised. “It is an open secret how one can get their hands on a driving license in India. Unlike foreign countries, where driving training is mandatory, in India anyone can get a license to drive, even a heavy motor vehicle, without undergoing the mandatory tests,” he says.

Safety devices

Usage of safety devices such as helmets and seat belts is also critical to avert fatal and grievous injuries in the event of road accidents. Helmets are mandatory for all motorists on two-wheelers, barring a few exemptions. In 2022, a total of 50,029 people, who were not wearing helmets,were killed in road accidents. In the same period, 16,715 people not wearing seat belts were killed. 

Experts give the example of Cyrus Mistry, the former chairman of the Tata Group, who died in a tragic road accident. In the incident, three persons travelling in a car at a very high speed crashed into a divider on a faultily-constructed bridge on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai highway last year. While the two passengers sitting in the back seat died on the spot, the driver survived as she was wearing the seat belt.

Ram Nair, CEO of Bengaluru-based Jeeva Raksha which trains and certifies first responders, says India is losing several lives due to non-compliance with safety instructions. “Studies in Europe have shown that there has been an 80% decrease in deaths after wearing seat belts and helmets was made compulsory,” he says.

Road design 

For the unscientific construction of roads, Nair gives the example of the newly constructed Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway, which has witnessed a spate of road accidents within days of inauguration. “There are certain flaws in the design of the expressway — the highway gets narrow at bridges without proper sign boards. When small vehicles are speeding, they cannot be controlled, causing accidents,” he says.

Nair also cites the example of poor drainage on several state highways. He points out that unscientific road humps only shift casualties from pedestrians to motorists. “The presence of unscientific road humps (that cannot be sighted in the night, unpainted, presence of multiple speed breakers on a stretch) are adding to the casualties. If we address the road design, unscientific humps and black spots on the highways, we can reduce at least 30% of deaths,” he says.

During the 2021 winter session, Gadkari, in a written reply, had informed Parliament that there were more than 5,803 black spots on national highway networks in the country. Tamil Nadu had 748, West Bengal had 701 and Karnataka had 551 such spots. Of the 551 black spots, MoHRTH has been able to rectify 367 in Karnataka.

Gadkari in his reply claimed that the NHAI has spent Rs 15,702 crore for repair and maintenance.

At an event, Gadkari said that the Government intends to bring the deaths on the road down by 50% by 2030. “Over 60% of people dying in road accidents are young — aged between 18 and 35. There is an urgent requirement for road safety awareness. The matter requires serious attention and it is one of the top most priority for our government,” he says.

Avoidable deaths

Experts also suggest that police officers, firefighters and paramedics, who are the first responders during the golden hour of a casualty, be scientifically trained to handle trauma cases. They should be taught how to prevent bleeding and how to position and transport victims safely.

“The NCRB data shows that India could have saved 40% of its victims had medical help reached them within the golden hour or the victim was rushed to hospital with advanced facilities,” Nair says.

At a road traffic injury prevention symposium held at Nimhans, B R Ravikanthe Gowda, Inspector General of Police (Central Range), explains that it is vital to minimise the gap between when an accident occurs and when emergency aid reaches the victims. “In Bengaluru, the time it takes for ambulances to reach the accident site and shift victims is very low. But this is high in rural areas,” he said. He emphasises the need for experts and other stakeholders to shift focus onto road accident-related injuries and deaths in areas beyond Bengaluru city.

There is a need to lay scientific roads with proper signage, drainage facilities, alignments and banking. Rural and urban local bodies must ensure that unscientific humps are removed and roads are made pothole free, Nair says. The health department should also regularly upgrade the trauma facilities, both human resources and infrastructure, to prevent loss of lives, he explains. 

There is a perception among people that road safety is the responsibility of only the police department, Nair says. “However, the fact is unless there is a collaboration from MoRTH, rural and urban development bodies, health and education departments along with a public that is compliant to traffic rules, fatalities on these roads cannot be reduced,” he adds. 

"We are procuring speed radar guns to use in other parts of the state (besides the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway). We are also looking at the road traffic issues on different roads in the state which is different in each district and we want to identify what types of violations occur at ground level which includes drinking and driving speeding not wearing helmets or seat belts" says Seemant Kumar Singh who holds an additional charge as the ADGP Traffic and Road Safety Karnataka. 

(With inputs from Ajith Athrady in New Delhi and Udbhavi Balakrishna in Bengaluru)