Government's half baked promises on reducing road accidents

The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari expressed sorrow that 65 per cent victims are in the age group of 18-35 years and due to these ghastly road accidents India is losing 3-5 per cent of its GDP. He also acknowledged the failures of his ministry at halving the number of domestic road accidents by 2018, the Stockholm conference last February.

New Delhi:The latest figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) show that the constitutional guarantee of the right to life of all Indian citizens is still bleeding on the highways. It is heart-rending that in more than 4.37 lakh road accidents country-wide about 1.55 lakh people died last year.

There's been wide publicity against overspeeding and reckless driving with slogans like - "Better late on earth than early to heaven", 'Speed thrills but kills", "Fast drive could be last drive", etc.,

The NCRB report blames overspeeding as the main reason for 60 per cent of accidents and the death of more than 86,241 people on the roads.

Reckless driving caused 25.7 per cent of accidents and 42,557 fatalities. Overall, both speeding and negligent driving has become fatal reasons and contributed to more than 85 per cent of accidents and the cause of shock and misery to thousands of families.

The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said 65 per cent victims are in the age group of 18-35 years and due to these ghastly road accidents India is losing 3-5 per cent of its GDP.

Gadkari, who had earlier announced that his government would take a multi-pronged approach to halve the number of domestic road accidents by 2018, acknowledged the failures of his ministry at the Stockholm conference last February.

The new Motor Vehicle Act brought by the Centre is still facing teething troubles in its implementation. The short-sighted attitude of throwing blame on speeding and negligence for all the accidents is obscuring the real reasons and continuing the bloody record on the roads. Every year lakhs of families are losing the bread-winners and are thrown on the roads in miserable conditions.

How long will these conditions continue and who would feel accountable and answerable these hapless people?

Five years ago, the Union Secretaries had announced that they will control road accidents through a special focus on road safety during the design phase, repair of dangerous roads, ensure safety and stability of vehicles at the manufacturing stage, ensure proper training to drivers, review and strictly enforce laws.

Gadkari had said six months back that in countries like Germany, America, though the vehicles run faster than India, the number of deaths are less. He said that it was not right to say that speeding alone is the cause of accidents.

While he attributes engineering errors, loopholes in detailed project reports, lack of adequate indicators on the roads, etc., as the main causes of increasing road accidents, why corrective steps are not undertaken on a war footing is still a question.

Four-years back it was declared that 786 areas have been identified as the most dangerous spots on the national highways and that they will be corrected at a cost of Rs 11 thousand crores within two years.

Gadkari's latest statement is that the most dangerous black spots are now three thousand. The World Bank report urges India to spend an additional $10,900 crore (approximately Rs 8,17,000 crore) on road safety to halve the number of road accident deaths in the next ten years.

Despite reports that it would result in economic benefits of up to 3.7 per cent of GDP per year if the government were prepared for such a huge expenditure - where is the leeway in the present fiery COVID crisis?

If the automotive industry, which assures and excites customers with vehicle pickup up to one hundred kilometres in five seconds, realizes the ground realities and slows down and tightens controls to suit the present standard of domestic roads, road safety will improve to some extent.