Road Safety Facts & Insights That Will Amaze You - Safety Buzz

In today's world, road and transport have become an integral part of every human being. Everybody is a road user in one shape or the other. The roads have minimized the distances but it has also increased the risk to life. Every year road crashes result in the loss of lakhs of lives and serious injuries to crores of people.

According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India about 80000 people lose their lives in road crashes every year in India which is thirteen percent of the total deaths all over the world. The man behind the wheel plays an important role in most of the crashes. In most cases, crashes occur either due to carelessness or due to a lack of road safety awareness of the road user. Hence, road safety education is as essential as any other basic skill of survival.

What does road safety actually mean?

Road safety means the use of those methods or precautions which help to minimize the risk to the lives of persons using the road network and damage to the property involved in a collision or a road crash.

Why is road safety information crucial??

Road safety education is essential for the survival of road users. It is necessary to provide road safety information for road users to encourage safer road user behaviour among current and prospective road users and reduce the number of people killed and injured on roads every year.

Major causes of road accidents-

• Road Features such as straight stretches, curved roads, location of culverts, bridges, potholes etc
• Ongoing road and other construction work on or astride the road
• Presence or absence of speed breakers
• Weather Conditions
• Lack of lighting on roads
• Lack of adequate road signs
• Violation of traffic rules
• Vehicles are driven by untrained and unqualified drivers
• Not wearing helmets and seat belts
• Triple Riding
• Distracted Driving
• Negligent Parking
• Overloading/ Overcrowding of Passenger Vehicles
• Improper Use of Headlights
• Teen driving or driving by kids below eighteen years of age is another cause of road accidents worldwide. They are not aware of traffic rules properly at this age. They drive rashly and invite accidents and damages.?

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Important traffic rules to follow-

• Always wear a seatbelt.
• Avoid distractions.
• Do not cross the speed limits.
• Service your vehicle regularly.
• Follow traffic signals.
• Maintain lane discipline.
• Be careful during bad weather.
• Maintain a safe distance.
• Avoid driving after alcohol consumption.
• Use pavement for walking.
• Carefully read road signs

?With millions of lives endangered worldwide, road traffic accidents (RTA) rank alarmingly high in the recent trends of pressing social issues. Approximately 328 lives are lost daily, much of which could have been prevented with timely rescue and intervention.?

Despite the numerous road safety campaigns and awareness drives, India still ranks first in the number of road accident deaths across 199 countries.?

Even after global immobility and uncertainty due to the Covid 19 pandemic and consequent lockdown, road accidents claimed 29,415 lives just between March and June, with an additional 51970 casualties.

Clearly, road safety continues to be a major developmental and public health concern, acting as a leading cause of death and injuries worldwide.

Global Trends and India?

Road accidents have been the leading cause of deaths worldwide with the last three decades seeing a substantial increase in this regard.?

?The WHO’s World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention lists Road Accidents as the third leading contributor to the global burden of disease, up from the ninth position in 1990.?

?WHO World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention.

?India’s contribution in this regard is amongst the highest in the world with the country accounting for the second-highest number of road accidents globally and the highest number of deaths.

?A total of 151113 people were killed in India in 449002 road accidents as China stood second and recorded 63,093 deaths in 212846 road accidents in the year 2019. (India Had Most Deaths in Road Accidents in 2019: Report.?

?As Per RTI data related to road accidents in the year 2020 a decrease in the total number of accidents and deaths was seen as compared to the year 2019. In 2020 a total of 366138 road accidents took place and a total of 131714 people were killed in India.??

The total number of persons killed in 2020 on National Highways and expressways was 47984 as compared to State highways and other roads which claimed 33148 and 50582 deaths respectively.

In India, 27.6? accidents happened per lakh population in the year 2020 which was 34.2 in 2019.

??Road Accidents as per Age and Gender Profile of Fatal Victims

The majority of the fatal victims belong to the age categories between 18-45 years of age with the numbers remaining more or less the same from 2017 to 2019.?????????????????????????

69.3% of the deaths in 2019 were in the age group of 18-45 years while the working group (18-60 years of age) formed 84.3% of the total fatalities in the same year. Male road users were among 84-85% of the fatalities on account of road accidents .? ? ? ? ? ?

The above data clearly states that road accidents are a leading cause of death. So the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India has called for a joint effort of the state and central government for the improvement of road and safety infrastructure to reduce mortality.?

The Ministry has entrusted the Indian Road Safety Campaign (a non-profit organization) to lead road safety activities aimed at increasing the common public’s participation in road safety measures across the country.

?The central government and state governments have initiated many projects for the development of national highways and state highways networks in the country into a road network of international standards for uninterrupted flow of traffic with enhanced safety features.

?Despite all the efforts of improving road conditions and providing better highways by governments, it is all meaningless unless and until the public put their efforts or contribute to this by following traffic rules and being aware of saving their own life as well as others’ lives. It’s a necessity today that we must realize our duty to follow traffic rules for making not only India but the whole world a safer place to drive and live as well.

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