[dailydriver]

A couple of days ago, we rejoiced at the news of India becoming the largest two wheeler market in the world, leaving China far behind. What was missed there was the effect of these burgeoning numbers on the life of an average road user. A recent study titled Advancing Road Safety in India done by the Centre for Public Health, NIMHANS reveals a few startling facts:

• 52.4% of global accidents and 63% of deaths due to road accidents happen in India. This, when the 54,72,144 km of Indian highways constitute just 4.84% of global road length.

• Over 1,50,000 people/year, or more than 400/day die as a result of road traffic injuries in India.

• Globally, low and middle income countries contribute to three fourths of annual accident related deaths.

• Five states viz. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Maharashtra account for 46.8% of accidents.

• Nearly 80% of victims of road mishaps are pedestrians, two wheeler riders and pillions(30-40% each) and cyclists(10%).

• Most fatal accidents happen on national and state highways. Big cities witnessed only 22.1% of total accidents and 11.3% of deaths.

• 100% of the severely injured, 50% of moderately injured and 10-20% of mildly injured are likely to have life long disabilities.

• Timely accidental trauma care is either completely absent or is at best inadequate on Indian roads, leading to rise in deaths.

• Accidents and accident related data are either under reported or wrongly reported because investigations are done by less trained personnel.

• There exists a gap between promulgation and implementation of road related laws, owing to the divided responsibilities between state and central Governments on one hand and among various ministries on the other.

• Measures to prevent accidents are almost always ad hoc because of absence of a coherent system of data collection and a complete lack of in depth crash analysis mechanisms.

To quote the author of the study, Dr. G Gururaj:

Road safety in India has been a neglected area... Essentially, road safety is science and requires a scientific approach to address the problem that needs to move beyond simplistic answers. Advancing road safety needs a framework based on good quality data that should bring multiple stakeholders to implement solutions in a convergent manner with systematic monitoring and evaluation of programmes and interventions.

Source 1

Source 2

Related links on the forum.

Accidents

Reporting

Safety Index

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by dailydriver

A couple of days ago, we rejoiced at the news of India becoming the largest two wheeler market in the world, leaving China far behind.

Rejoice? That fact just sent a chill into my body, the prospect of having to go out there each day to tackle these feral motorists, I may have to stop driving altogether in due course from the current 300-400 odd kms per month. Its easy to assume that most of the growth of two wheelers happened in Bangalore where every 14/15 year old is welcomed into adulthood with a bike (kind of like handing over a loaded Uzi to a monkey) and where every newly recruited engineer buys a bike on his first salary on EMI of course.

I'm not stereotyping, and I'd have no problem if the bikes were gifted by parents after their kid turns 18+ and also if any buyer rides responsibly and with concern for others and for themselves. Unfortunately that's not the case with the majority.

What was missed there was the effect of these burgeoning numbers on the life of an average road user. A recent study titled Advancing Road Safety in India done by the Centre for Public Health, NIMHANS reveals a few startling facts:

The math is simple, India is a tiny, tiny nation with a massive population and the livable area of the country is hardly 30-40% of the already tiny total-area. People need to move around, each and every one of them and that's why two-wheelers sell, from the humble TVS 50 to a Kawasaki Ninja people choose their poison based on budget. Whenever I've set out in the early hours of the morning or at late evening, at every free stretch of road (and my god the new airport road in Bangalore is a sight to behold), you can see many of these dense creatures zooming about at highly illegal speeds endangering not just their lives but those of others as well, it happened just last week to a neighbour... his son liked the wild side of things in terms of biking and is now no more. The father regrets getting him a Rs.4 lakh bike, but where was that forethought BEFORE buying?

I've been called for having an "elitist" mentality here for merely criticizing bikers for their rashness and absolute disrespect towards road rules, my criticism still stands, but only towards those who endanger others lives and their own. A few bikers do exist who just mind their lane and go about their business as safely as possible, other than that its the constant criss-crossing, sudden merging into lanes (I've suffered atleast 5 non-fatal heart attacks due to these), sudden turns into main roads, and over-speeding/wheelieing/stoppieing that results in them arriving at the morgue earlier than they should.

For any of them reading, PLEASE make safety the priority, ABS, traction control all cool, but they work best when combined with mind control. I understand the pleasure of connecting with the machine, but it isn't worth it over safety. Arrogance is a much hated trait in people, and it'll be great advice to not ever let it show when driving/riding as well, survive and let survive.

[justwheels]

Rightly pointed out in the study by the author, that accidental safety or road safety is a science. Well we might be on the Mars already but our town planning is still Stone Age. With the most ill planned road infrastructure, random flyovers and under passes and traffic signals, the whole science of road planning is a joke. So you don't have to be a bad driver to really drive nonsense here. But to top it up, you have a breed of these wheely, swirling riders.

Come to Bangalore and you will see wheelies being done on a Dio on a traffic laden highway. Even state buses don't stop on red lights and the delivery wala boys just "Swiggy" around. Sometimes I feel scared to follow rules. Late night stopping on some red lights has the fear of being rear ended by a fast trucker.

In the end, it's a sad state of affairs!

[SmartCat]

Half of global accident deaths? No way! Looks like the author made a simple math error.

Total number of World road accident deaths: 1.25 million according to these WHO reports
http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/mortality/en/
http://www.who.int/violence_injury_p...tatus/2015/en/

India's contribution to the tally is around 140,000 deaths (not something to be proud of, I agree) which works out to be 11.2% - not bad considering India's population (absolute number) and population density.

India's number of road deaths per 100,000 population seems to be around the same levels as most developing countries
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ted_death_rate

[IshaanIan]

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Rejoice? That fact just sent a chill into my body, the prospect of having to go out there each day to tackle these feral motorists, I may have to stop driving altogether in due course from the current 300-400 odd kms per month. Its easy to assume that most of the growth of two wheelers happened in Bangalore where every 14/15 year old is welcomed into adulthood with a bike (kind of like handing over a loaded Uzi to a monkey) and where every newly recruited engineer buys a bike on his first salary on EMI of course.

Oh come on it's better that than every techie who goes and buys a big Honda City/Baleno/Jazz etc. and then potters around straddling two lanes of the road paying no heed to anyone's honking or all the oldies in Wagon Rs/Celerios/800s that move at a snails pace in the middle of the road or sometimes even in the fast lane. What about every government plate car being driven rashly? Or every 20 something malnourished Indian girl who can barely see over the steering wheel? Point is, bikes don't affect me as much on the roads as huge 4 wheelers that are being driven poorly. The simple fact is that while they are able to weave in and out, here and there, at any given point in time, they don't take up even half as much space as a car and thus aren't responsible for delaying me from getting to my destination at all. Don't you think?

[vishy76]

People think that accidents happen only because the car is at fault but let me tell you that isn't true at all. People only realise how dangerous Indian roads are once you have a practical example right in front of you. Classic case in point, my dad.

Used to own a Kawasaki a in the late 90s. He was a petrol head then and used to do 95 km/hr on that bike back in the day.

One night, his friend had an accident and broke his leg. My dad was the one who had to sit beside him the whole night near the hospital bed. That was his lesson he says. Never makes the mistake of putting all his trust onto his instincts knowing they could go wrong.

Indian roads are roads where you can't trust the best of drivers. Your instincts and even the car's engineering are hampered to an extent.

Drive safe,
Vishy

[dailydriver]

I think we are missing the point here. Blame-games and rants will not give us concrete solutions. As outlined in the opening post, the main things that should warrant a critical and constructive discussion are:

• What could be done to prevent the death of pedestrians and two wheeler / bicycle riders due to accidents?

• How to ensure that trauma care is made available to victims within the golden hour?

• Can we design a mechanism wherein root cause analysis is done through systematic crash investigation and responsibilities fixed?

• Are we mature enough to implement a system of violation based penalty which could lead to cancellation of driving licence for life after reaching a certain threshold.

• In what ways could we train ourself to be better / safe drivers?

• Is the death toll on our roads a direct by-product of our lenient and very often corrupt licensing practices?

• Can we, who have made a mark on Mars, not lay some damn good roads and ensure disciplined driving there?

• Would making jaywalking a punishable offence help?

• How can we solve the ubiquitous bovine menace on our highways?

@smartcat, it indeed appears that there is some math-magic gone wrong. Thanks for the WHO links.

[SmartCat]

Bloomberg/WHO data: we are better than other BRICS nations!

[Viju]

Originally Posted by smartcat

India's contribution to the tally is around 140,000 deaths (not something to be proud of, I agree) which works out to be 11.2% - not bad considering India's population (absolute number) and population density.

Exactly. 1,40,000 is a huge number, but as you said, it is around 11% where as India's contribution to the world's population is nearly 20%!

On the other hand, I think the vehicle density is still quite low for such a vast, populous country. Once more and more people get on the roads in their own vehicles, I expect this number to rise, which is quite sad.

[anvara]

Mod Note: Please use Quote and strictly avoid inline replies with bold text et all. Thanks.

Wonderful points DD. Some thoughts that come to mind below:

Originally Posted by dailydriver

What could be done to prevent the death of pedestrians and two wheeler / bicycle riders due to accidents?

For starters get them to understand basic laws of physics and educate them that the human body is not designed to / DOES not withstand impact with vehicles. Stop talking on mobile phones as that seems to be the primary reason for a number of deaths.

How to ensure that trauma care is made available to victims within the golden hour? -

Herculean task

[Can we design a mechanism wherein root cause analysis is done through systematic crash investigation and responsibilities fixed?

Tough unless fixing of cameras DVR and around various locations across roads becomes the norm and is acceptable as evidence

Are we mature enough to implement a system of violation based penalty which could lead to cancellation of driving licence for life after reaching a certain threshold. -

No. Not in a 100 years unfortunately. We should first shake up the system of issuing driving licenses before we can start with anything on your line of thinking which by the way is how it should have been in the first place.

In what ways could we train ourself to be better / safe drivers? -

Key word is anticipation. When on the road, I expect everyone around me to make all possible mistakes and try and give room / accommodate for such errors as far as possible. Defensive driving is the order of the day and training children from a very young age on road safety should be the way forward. Current generation sadly does not have it in them as the rot is too deep. If we start today, we could probably / maybe expect a change a couple of generations down the line but...

Is the death toll on our roads a direct by-product of our lenient and very often corrupt licensing practices? -

Without doubt. Licensing authorities should be directly held responsible for these deaths and severe penalties should be given to these guys for not adhering to some acceptable standard. Today no one is accountable.Then you would see how well they implement / change the licensing procedure.

Can we, who have made a mark on Mars, not lay some damn good roads and ensure disciplined driving there? -

In a couple of decades if we start now.

Would making jaywalking a punishable offence help? -

Where do we start? We see educated masses happily ignoring pedestrian walkways / foot over bridges and crossing at will at signals (TIDEL Park signal for those in the know in Chennai not to mention the others of course). If the so called educated lot behaves like this I guess we do not have a start point

How can we solve the ubiquitous bovine menace on our highways?

Bring the erring 2 legged bovine to justice - 6 months of jail and what ever one deems fit and confiscate the 4 legged bovine and send it to an animal shelter

Sorry for the rant guys but just could not help.

Reason among other things, a school bus with around 40 kids jumping a signal at 0745 this morning when there was very little traffic. It would have taken the fellow less than 30 seconds before his light would have turned green but no, he decided to teach those children exactly what should not have been taught..

Called the person in charge for transportation of the school and informed him. God only knows what would be the action taken.

Cheers and drive safe

[dailydriver]

An excellent initiative from Bagalkot police. The text (Lord Ganesha's words) says: Please wear a helmet. Unlike mine, your head cannot be replaced.



PS: The guy doing the PS job must be enamoured with Jeep. Why else would he use that picture in the poster? .

[ssambyal1980]

As per the recent report tabled by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for the year 2016, India continues to lead globally in terms of road fatalities. As many as 4.80 lac accidents were reported across the nation in the year 2016, resulting in loss of more than 1.5 lac precious human lives, a shocking rise of 3.2% over the 2015 figures. The number of injured stood at more than 4.94 lac. All this meant that in 2016 on an average over 400 people died in road accidents daily and nearly 50 percent of the deaths were in the highly productive age group of 18-35 years.

The major highlights of the report for the year 2016 are:

1. Total number of road accidents reported: 4,80,652

2. Total number of road accident deaths reported: 1,50,785

3. Total number of persons injured in road accidents: 4,94,624

4. Tamil Nadu accounts for the highest number of road accidents with a share of 14.9%, Madhya Pradesh stood second at 11.2% and Karnataka came third accounting for 9.2% of the total accidents reported.

5. In terms of maximum number of road accident deaths state-wise, Uttar Pradesh held the dubious distinction with a share of 12.8%, followed by Tamil Nadu at 11.4% and Maharashtra at third spot with a share of 8.6%.

6. The report also reiterated the fact that two-wheeler category was most prone to road accidents, with two-wheelers being involved in 34.8% of total road accidents.

7. In LMV category, Car, Vans and Taxis were involved in 17.9% of total road accidents.

8. In HMV category, trucks and buses were involved in 11.2% and 6.6% of total road accidents respectively.

9. Cyclists and pedestrians were involved in 1.7% and 1.5% of the total road accidents respectively.

10. In 2016, on an average 55 road accidents took place every hour in which 17 persons lost their lives.

The key factors behind road accidents cited in the report are :

1. Flawed road engineering.

2. Technical failure in vehicles.

3. Lack of proper infrastructure for the vulnerable slow moving traffic i.e the cyclists and pedestrians.

4. Gross violation of specified speed limits.

5. Drunken driving.

6. Red light jumping.

7. Driving on wrong sides.

8. Abrupt changing of lanes.

9. Careless overtaking.

10. Using mobile phones while driving.

11. Helmetless driving.

[prasadee]

Originally Posted by smartcat

Half of global accident deaths? No way! Looks like the author made a simple math error.Total number of World road accident deaths: 1.25 million according to these WHO reports

When you have such a large population as the denominator none of the absolute stats will make sense. You can walk away with whatever conclusion that suits you. One needs to consider the actual number of people in India with vehicles, automobiles. The actual number of distance they travel per year, or the time they spend in automobiles. If half the population is living in villages walking to their farms, they are most likely to be killed by a wild animal than a road accident. They are just padding the numbers to obfuscate the real/relevant data.

In a country like US where people are spread out, an average American may drive/commute for an hour every day (according to some 2015 data). That would be 60 miles, or a 100kms every day. When you factor that in, the picture would look very different.

The first part of solving a problem, is to recognize there is a problem!

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by prasadee

When you have such a large population as the denominator none of the absolute stats will make sense. You can walk away with whatever conclusion that suits you. One needs to consider the actual number of people in India with vehicles, automobiles. The actual number of distance they travel per year, or the time they spend in automobiles. If half the population is living in villages walking to their farms, they are most likely to be killed by a wild animal than a road accident. They are just padding the numbers to obfuscate the real/relevant data.

In a country like US where people are spread out, an average American may drive/commute for an hour every day (according to some 2015 data). That would be 60 miles, or a 100kms every day. When you factor that in, the picture would look very different.

The first part of solving a problem, is to recognize there is a problem!

So you don't think Indian road fatalities are a touch high, be it relative or absolute or by any standards for that matter?

Jeroen

[Durango Dude]

My state: TN, has the dubious distinction of having the highest accident rates in the country!