Road design could be a killer!

When driving a car nowadays, it’s the two wheelers that one needs to look out for. Zipping away on the wrong side of the road or whizzing past even though the signal screams red. I think even the dignified two-wheeler riders are facing this menace. The e-commerce companies are contributing to this need of their delivery staff trying to maximise their incentives based upon their ‘on-time’ deliveries.

India accounts for 11% of all global road deaths, while only having about 1% of the world's vehicles. In 2022, India recorded 1264 road accidents per day and 461 deaths due to road accidents per day! This means 35% of all accidents were fatal! Around 45% of road fatalities involve two-wheelers. Not only this, but 30,000 pedestrians died due to faulty infrastructure or faulty driving by other negligent drivers.

Accidents in Delhi were rising the most between 2021 and 2022. Only Chennai and Mumbai saw a drop in number of accidents and consequently drop in number of deaths. The drop in deaths in Chennai has been quite remarkable which means that they have been able to figure out the problem areas and have worked to resolve them. When I was chairing Smart Cities Council India, we had learnt that the Traffic Police Department in Chennai with the help of IIT Madras identified and geo-tagged black spots where the accidents tended to be frequent. They also found that those spots either had sharp bends or poor visibility for vehicle drivers obstructed by trees or such some other obstacles. Identifying the problem was the first step and then they had to work to resolving the problem. The results are indeed encouraging and already other states like Haryana are reaching out to IIT Madras for the dashboard that they have created.

More than 50% of accident victims die because they do not receive medical attention during the ‘Golden Hour’, which is the first hour after the traumatic injury. Instant and proper first aid given to road accident victims during this hour increases the chance of survival manifold and reduces the severity of injuries. However, after a crash, people were generally hesitant to help an injured person on the road, fearing getting involved in a legal or procedural hassles. This has been set to rest by the Supreme Court in March 2016 by passing the Good Samaritan Law which protects people who voluntarily help accident victims without expecting payment or reward.

Now anyone informing the police about any accidental injury or death, except an eyewitness, does not need to reveal personal details such as full name, address, phone number etc. Any Police official, on arrival at the scene, cannot compel the Good Samaritan to disclose his or her name, identity, address and other such details. The Police cannot force any Good Samaritan to become a witness in the matter. The Good Samaritan can leave after having informed the Police about an injured person on the road, and no further questions can be asked if the Good Samaritan does not desire to be a witness in the matter.

?

So do step forward and fearlessly help if you come across any accident victim.