Road Safety in India|Road Safety Guidelines|IRF(India Chapter)

ROAD SAFETY-Road Safety in Indian Cities

2010-08-15T23:54:00.001-07:00

Sanjay K. Singh
Associate Professor of Economics,Indian Institute of Management,Lucknow

Source-URBAN MOBILITY,IRF BULLETIN

More than 240 people get killed every week in India's metropolitan cities(cities with populations of a million or more).There are 34 fatalities per week on the roads of Delhi alone!But,Delhi is not the riskiest city in the country.No less than 16 other metropolitan cities present a higher risk than Delhi.The level of risk in the cities of Uttar Pradesh,the most populous state of India,is more than twice that of the other cities in the country(see Figure).

Why then is the road safety situation so bad in so many cities of India?The main reason appears to be the prevailing imbalance in modal split coupled with inadequate transport infrastructure and its sub-optimal use.Very few cities have an adequate public transport system.People reply primarily on personalised modes such as cars and two-wheelers and para-transit modes such as cars and two-wwheelers and para-transit modes such as auto-rickshaws and tempos.In most of the cities,two-wheelers and cars account for over 90% of the vehicle population,whereas the share of buses is negligible.In general,the road space in cities is grossly insufficient and the problem of traffic accidents is further aggravated by the mixed nature of traffic composition.Experience shows that fatalities tend to be concentrated around roads that are dysfunctional in the sense that they are not fit for carrying such mixed streams of intense fast and slow moving traffic safely.Typical features aggravating injuries and fatalities include traffic volumes and speeds that the roads were simply not designed for,high proportions of young and inexperienced drivers and high levels of non-motorised transport users,such as cyclists and pedestrians,vying for the same road space.

Most of the traffic accidents are attributed to human error.For this reason,road safety initiatives traditionally focus on 'fixing' the driver in order to prevent crashes.While there can be doubt that approaches involving road safety education and enforcement are essential in curtailing traffic accidents,there is an equal and parellel need for more focus on mitigating te outcome of accidents by designing safer vehicles and safer roads.

Roads should be designed in such a way that they are not only self-explaining but also'forgiving'.Accidents are less likely to occur on self-explaining roads and injuries will tend to be fewer and less severe on forgiving roads.A self-explaining road shows road users precisely where they should be at any given moment and guides them on how to procees safely.For example,a simple
cost effective pedestrian refuge(a small raised and protected island)in the middle of the busy road ,where pedestrians can pause before continuing to cross,not only clearly indiacates where to cross,but also makes crossing much easier and safer.

Forgiving roads protect road users in the event of an accident.Road design must recognise that accidents can occur and ensure that injuries and fatalities are minimised.For example,simple engineering features like safely barriers can be used to separate fast moving vehicles from people.Similarly,crash cushions can be used to reduce the consequences of an accident.

While increased mobility is essential for economic development and the relief of poverty,it should not be at the cost of escalating fatality rates among the poorer and most vulnerable sections of society.Appropriate action needs to be taken that simultaneously addresses vehicles,user behaviour and the design of the roads themselves.A key part of the solution lies in accessing the networks of metropolitan cities and identifying those dysfunctional roads on which large numbers of road users are being killed or seriously injured.These roads should then be targeted for safety upgrading through affordable,cost effective measures.

Indian Design Guidelines(IRC103-1988)

2010-08-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

Advertorial: How to make your road trips safe(Source IBN live)

2010-08-10T00:20:00.000-07:00

Road safety is an issue of key concern for both the government and the people on Indian roads. Safe driving requires a higher level of confidence and competence, given the poor traffic planning, increasing number of vehicles, and lack of civic driving sense and untrained drivers on the road.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. promotes safe driving and ensures safety of the people by taking all measures for road safety awareness.

A few points shared below, can help us maintain safety of self and those riding with us. These tips help you become a smart and responsive driver.

More Mileage, More Fun

Drive between 45 and 55 kmph -- It has been established by trials that you can get up to 40 per cent extra mileage at 40 kmph as compared to 80 kmph.

Avoid accelerating or decelerating unnecessarily. Incorrect gear shifts can lead to as much as 20% increase in fuel consumption -- For city driving, change to a higher gear when you are sure that the engine will not have to struggle.Get into top gear as soon as possible.

Check wheels for free rotation when your car is being serviced. Binding brakes restrict free wheel movement and the engine consumes more petrol in order to overcome resistance.

Use your clutch only when you change gears. Riding the clutch causes loss of energy and damages the clutch lining.

You can save as much as 6 per cent fuel through regular tuning of car. If your engine emits black or dark grey smoke, has poor pulling power or consumes large quantities of oil, have it checked immediately at an authorised service station.

Your air filter prevents air from fouling the engine. Dust causes rapid wear of engine components and increases fuel consumption.

Make sure that the fuel tank cap has a good rubber seal. Unnecessary loads increase fuel consumption. A reduction of weight by about 50 kg can lead to a 2 per cent saving in fuel, when driving in the city.

Under inflated tyres increase rolling resistance which leads to higher petrol consumption and faster wear of tyres at the sides.

Better Maintenance, Longer Drive

Do all preventive maintenance of your vehicle and stick to the maintenance schedule -- If you notice any fault, consult your service station.

Daily pre-driving checks must be carried out by all drivers, both inside the vehicle and outside.

High-Speed Watchout

Stopping distance progressively increases with vehicle speed. Apply the brakes far before of the stopping point to allow for the extra stopping distance.

At high speeds, the vehicle may be affected by side winds. Therefore, reduce speed and be prepared for unexpected buffeting, which can occur at the exits of tunnels, when passing by a cut of a hill, or when being overtaken by large vehicles, etc.

SOME MAJOR TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS AFFECTING SAFETY

2010-06-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

Red Light Jumping: You feel that by jumping red light you are saving upon your time. But it is not so. In fact you are losing it and playing with your life and is getting yourself booked under the law

Improper & Obstructive Parking: No parking should be done on road, except when specifically permitted by a direction on a board. Don’t blame when you are stuck in traffic jam next time, some among you may have parked obstructively on the road.

Violation of Mandatory Signs: There are certain mandatory signs, violation of which may put you in trouble. These are entering a one-way road from the opposite side, taking a right turn or left turn at places where it is prohibited, and blowing of horn where it is prohibited

Overtaking: On certain roads overtaking is strictly prohibited. These are the ones where the volume of traffic is very high. When overtaking on roads where it is not prohibited you should exercise great caution and put your power of judgement to its proper use.

Drunken Driving: Drunken driving is the gravest of all traffic offences. It is dangerous not only for you but also for other road users.

Know the Road Markings 2

2010-06-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

Single Yellow Line: You cannot cross this line except while turning Right or taking a U-Turn.

Box Junction: A rectangular box with yellow crossed diagonal lines. Vehicles are not supposed to stop at this even for a brief period. Vehicles should cross it only if they have a clear space available ahead of the yellow box.

Stop Line: A single solid transverse line at the intersection. If the light signal is red or the traffic officer signals to ’Stop’ one is to stop the vehicle before this line.

Zebra Crossing: Alternate black and white stripes painted parallel to the road for pedestrians to cross the road when signals indicate so. Vehicles must stop and give way to pedestrians at these crossings. Pedestrian crossings are marked to facilitate and give the right of way to pedestrians.

KNOW THE MARKINGS ON ROAD

2010-05-25T00:05:00.000-07:00

All lines, patterns, words and colours applied on or attached to the road surface or kerbs are road markings. These are meant to direct, guide and regulate the road users. They are, in fact, the languages of road.

Centre Line: This white broken line divides the road into two, separating opposing stream of traffic. This line can be crossed if overtaking is essential provided the oncoming carriageway is clear

Double White/Yellow Lines:These divide the road into two and overtaking/crossing these lines from both side and U-turn is strictly prohibited.
White less than and greater than signs: This indicates to slow down and proceed carefully. This road marking is generally found on roads near a school, college or hospital.

Small Broken White Lines:These demarcate the lanes on a road. Vehicles are supposed to move in between these lines. The left most lane is for buses, heavy vehicles and slow moving vehicles. The middle lane is for LMVs, scooters & motor cycles & the right most lane is for overtaking & turning right.

Parking prohibited Lines:Continuous single yellow/white line at the edge of the carriageway indicates that no vehicle can be parked but vehicle can be stopped along such a road. Continuous double yellow/white lines indicate that both parking and stopping are prohibited.

WHAT DOES TRAFFIC SIGNALS INDICATE?

2010-04-27T02:57:00.000-07:00

RED means STOP
Wait behind the stop line or cross walk.

If there are no lines, stop before the traffic light at the intersection so that traffic light is clearly visible.
Wait until a green signal appears before proceeding.

AMBER means CAUTION

You may move on if the amber appears after you have already crossed the stop line or when you feel that your stopping may cause accident. Anyhow be careful.

GREEN means GO

Proceed ahead ensuring that the way is clear

You can make a right or left turn if not prohibited by signs, but take special care and give way to pedestrians crossing the road.
FLASHING RED

Generally provided at level crossings, bridges, airfield, fire stations, minor roads, etc.

It means you must come to a full stop and proceed cautiously after making a safety check on all approaching traffic.

FLASHING YELLOW

Generally provided where major roads meet minor roads.

Slow down and proceed with caution, giving due attention to other traffic and pedestrians.

TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES

2010-04-24T03:09:00.000-07:00

Traffic control devices are all signs, signals, markings and devices placed on or adjacent to a road or highway, to regulate, warn or guide traffic to promote road safety. Every road user must be aware of these devices.

Traffic control devices comprise of:
Traffic signs
Road markings
Traffic Signals
Miscellaneous traffic control devices such as barricades, traffic cones, central refuges, speed breakers, bollards, reflective devices etc.

EMERGENCY FIRST-AID(in case of an accident)

2010-04-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

-Do not move an injured person unless it is absolutely necessary.
-If you must move an injured person, keep the back and neck as straight as possible by putting your arms under the back, and gently support the neck with your upper arms.
-Take hold of the clothing with your hands, and pull the victim headfirst away from danger.
-Check to see if the injured is breathing. If the person is not breathing and you are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), begin administering CPR or mouth-to-mouth breathing.

HOW TO REACT IN CASE OF AN ACCIDENT

2010-04-19T22:52:00.000-07:00

-Always carry a basic emergency kit in your vehicle, containing flares and first aid supplies.
-If involved in a crash you must stop, regardless of the extent of damage.
-It is a criminal offence to leave the scene of an accident involving a fatality or a personal injury.
-Exchange information with other drivers involved. Give your name, address, etc. to the other drivers and police on the scene.
-If a parked vehicle or property other than a vehicle is damaged or if a domestic animal is injured, try to locate the owner or notify the police.
-Do not stop at an accident scene unless you are involved or emergency help is needed. Otherwise, keep your attention on driving and the directions given by traffic police.
-Shift the injured immediately to the hospital in any vehicle available.

Act like Human on Roads

2010-04-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

COEXIST PEACEFULLY ON ROAD

When confronted by an aggressive driver

Avoid eye contact.
Stay calm and relaxed
Make every attempt to get out of the way safely.
Avoid confrontation
Do not take other driver’s behaviour personally, he might have some reason to drive erratically.
If you feel you are being followed too closely, signal and pull over to allow the other driver to go by.
Ignore harassing gestures and name calling, and do not return them.

Avoid becoming an aggressive driver

Allow enough travel time to reach the destination on schedule.
Alter your schedule to avoid driving during peak congestion periods.
If you late, call ahead so that you can relax.
Do not drive when you are angry, upset or overly tired.
Make your vehicle comfortable and avoid situations that raise your anxiety.
When driving, relax and remain aware of your posture. Sit back in your seat and loosen your grip on the steering wheel.
Give others the benefit of doubt; be polite, courteous and forgiving.
If you commit any driving error, apologize by simply waving your hands.
Do not follow too closely. Allow at least a three-seconds space between the vehicle ahead.
Do not make gestures that may offend others.
Remember, driving is not a contest. Hence, forget about winning.

While on wheels(contd)

2010-04-10T04:36:00.000-07:00

DO NOT DRIVE WHEN DRUNK
Alcohol slows down the mental process.
It increases confidence but decreases performance.
It affects brain’s ability to control and coordinate body’s movement.
It slows down the reflex and hence the reaction time increases.
It impairs the ability to judge speed and distance.
It also impairs vision and hearing.

SEATBELT SAVES

Seat belt saves life and reduce the severity of injuries.
With seat belt tied around, you become a part of the vehicle, rather than a loose object that can be tossed around inside in a crash or thrown outside.
If you are thrown out of a vehicle in a crash, your chances of being killed are 25 times greater than if you stay inside.
If your vehicle goes out of control, with the seat belt on you may be able to regain control. Without it, you may not even be able to stay in the driver’s seat.

While on wheels(contd)

2010-04-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

DRIVING AT NIGHT

Be alert: pedestrians, bicycles, animals and hand drawn vehicles that travel without light are difficult to be seen.
Drive at a slow speed to react safely and stop in time.
Turn on the headlights when it is dark.
Drive with dipped headlights in places where the roads are amply lit.
Keep the headlights clear and clean and check them frequently. Keep your windscreen clean because dirty windscreen can impair your vision.
Avoid looking to the dazzling light if an oncoming vehicle is driving in high beam and gradually slow down your speed.
To reduce the glare of lights following you, switch your interior rear view mirror to the night position or slightly tilt it or tilt the exterior rear view mirrors.
Before overtaking ensure that the oncoming vehicle is at a safe distance.

DRIVING IN RAIN

Check the working of wipers, windscreen washing fluid system, all vehicle lights, tyres, exhaust pipe.
Be careful and reduce your speed as people may run across the roads in panic.
Be considerate to other road users, avoid splashing of water.
On slippery roads drive carefully and slowly. In case the vehicle slips, stop acceleration and press the clutch, hold the steering in a straight position and do not brake. Wait till you regain the grip.

DRIVING IN FOGGY CONDITIONS

Drive slow as distances are hard to judge and low visibility decreases your reaction time.
Do not hit your brakes in panic, you may get hit from the back.
Turn on your wipers and defroster and turn off the music.
Drive with dipped headlights, high beams produce too much glare in fog.
Use the central verge of the road to guide you.
Honk periodically to let other drivers know you are there.
Never attempt overtaking.

While on Wheels(Cont)

2010-04-02T23:24:00.000-07:00

WHILE OVERTAKING
Never overtake from left, always overtake from right.
Make clear your intentions of overtaking to your fellow drivers.
Give proper indications.
Be watchful of a pedestrian or an animal that may suddenly appear in front of the vehicle you are overtaking.
On roads having two-way traffic overtake only when the oncoming vehicle is at a safe distance.

WHILE TURNING

Give proper indications.
Start changing lane only when the vehicles behind you have understood your intentions.
Slow down while approaching the turning point.
Turn only when the vehicle coming from the opposite direction is at a safe distance.
The vehicle coming from the opposite direction has the right of way.
Watch out for pedestrians as well as vehicles coming from your right side.

RIGHT OF WAY

The children and the disabled have the right of way.
Pedestrians have the first right of way at unmanned intersections.
At an unmanned intersections traffic on the right has the right of way.
At a round about, traffic on your right has the right of way.
Traffic on major road has the right of way.
On hilly and steep roads vehicles going uphill have the right of way.
Emergency vehicles like fire brigade, ambulance, police have the right of way.
These vehicles, while on emergency duty, can jump a red right, drive in non entry areas or on wrong side.
These vehicles should be given priority and clear passage.

While on wheels(Contd)

2010-03-29T22:03:00.001-07:00

NEGOTIATING A ROUND ABOUT

Choose your lane as per your exit, at least 100m in advance.
Slow down while approaching a round about.
Enter the round about at an angle.
Give way to traffic on your right.
Merge slowly with the traffic inside the round about.
Move towards your exit gradually giving proper indications.
Be watchful of a pedestrian or an animal that may suddenly appear

WHILE ON FOUR WHEELS (Cont..)

2010-03-24T23:01:00.000-07:00

NEGOTIATING AN INTERSECTION JUDICIOUSLY
Almost 50% of collisions occur at intersections.
Choose the left lane if you want to turn left, the middle lane if you want to go straight, the right lane if turning right, at least 100 m in advance.
Give proper indication before you turn.
Slow down while approaching an intersection.
Stop before stop line at red light.
Even if the signal allows you to go, proceed slowly and cautiously.
While approaching an unmanned intersection cover the brake and be prepared to stop.

WHILE ON FOUR WHEELS

2010-03-21T22:21:00.000-07:00

Always
Ensure that co-passenger on the front seat and the driver has worn seat belt.
Drive within the prescribed speed limit (Car-50, Bus/Truck-40).
Drive in your lane.
Keep a safe distance from the vehicle ahead.

Never

Talk on mobile phone while driving.
Allow children below 12 years of age to sit on the front seat.
Allow minors to drive.

RIDE TWO-WHEELER SAFELY

2010-03-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

28% of the persons being killed in road accidents are two-wheeler riders.

Always

Wear a full mask good quality BIS approved helmet.
Ensure that pillion rider also wears a helmet of the same quality.
Fasten the helmet tightly.
Check the inflation of both front and rear tyres.
Ensure the front and rear lights are functional.
Give proper indications before turning.
Switch off your indicators after turning.
Use front and rear brakes simultaneously.
Ride in the middle lane.
Keep a safe distance from the vehicle ahead.

Never

Indulge in zig-zag riding.
Overtake from the blind corners of a heavy vehicle or from the left side. It is highly dangerous.
Apply brakes suddenly.
Carry heavy loads or more than one person as pillion rider.
Use cell phone while riding.
Ride in the bus lane.
Allow a minor to ride.

SAFETY MEASURES WHILE TRAVELLING IN BUS

2010-03-12T02:27:00.000-08:00

Always
Get up early and start from home in time.
Board the bus from the designated bus stop in a queue.
Behave properly inside the bus.
Hold on to the railings of the bus.
Alight only at the designated bus stop.
Get down only when the bus has completely stopped.
If the driver is not following the Road Safety Norms,
inform Traffic Helpline at 23010101.

Never

Rush or run to catch the bus.
Stand on the steps of the bus.
Make noise that may distract the driver.
Put any part of the body outside the bus.
Alight from a moving bus.
Cross in front of the bus you have alighted.

CYCLE SAFELY

2010-03-08T22:01:00.000-08:00

10% of the persons being killed in road accidents are cyclists.

Always

Cycle must be fitted with standard gadgets – bell, brakes, rear view mirror, both front & black mudguard painted white, reflective tapes affixed at the front & back.
Use service road/cycle track, if available. Cycle should be on extreme left side of the road.
Avoid busy roads.
Keep a safe distance from fast motorized vehicles.
Give proper indications before stopping or turning.
Never

Do not indulge in any kind of stunts.
Do not load the cycle with another person or heavy goods.
Do not ride holding on to fast moving vehicles.
Do not ride parallel to another cycle.

ROAD SAFETY TIPS FOR PEDESTRIANS

2010-03-03T23:05:00.000-08:00

Walk on footpath - 50% of those killed in road accidents are pedestrians.

ALWAYS REMAIN ALERT WHILE ON ROAD

 Walk on any side of road if there are footpaths.
 On roads having no footpath, walk on extreme right side facing the oncoming traffic.
 Always use Zebra Crossing, Foot Over-bridge & Subways to cross the road.
 Cross the road when the vehicles are at a safe distance.
 Wear light coloured dresses during night.

A LITTLE CARELESSNESS CAN BE DANGEROUS

 Do not cross the road in hurry or by running.
 Never Cross the road in front of or in between parked vehicles.
 It is very dangerous to cross the road at blind corners, turnings, etc. where you are not visible to vehicle drivers.
 Do not jump over the railings to cross road.

RULES OF ROAD(Part2)

2010-02-25T22:00:00.000-08:00

U Turn

After ensuring that there is no prohibition to take a U-turn, also make sure:

 That the road is wide enough for this manoeuvre
 That there is no traffic approaching from either side and you have full visibility of the road on both sides.

Speed

Driving at a high speed does not give you sufficient reaction time to observe hazards. Other road users too, get less time to react. The higher the speed, the greater the stopping distance and larger the chances of an accident.

The golden rule for speed:
Drive at a speed that will allow you to stop well within the distance you can see clearly

Following Distance

Always maintain sufficient distance between the vehicle you are driving and the vehicle in front of you in order to avoid collision in case the vehicle ahead slows down or stops suddenly. Avoid applying the brakes abruptly unless it is necessary to do so for safety reasons.

The law also provides that the driver if a motor vehicle moving behind another vehicle shall keep at a sufficient from the other vehicle to avoid collision if the vehicle in front should suddenly slow down or stop.

Overtaking

One of the major causes of road accidents is callous overtaking. So, you have an important responsibility while overtaking. Be careful while you observe oncoming vehicles in the overtaking exercise. You must only overtake when you are sure that after completing the manoeuvre you can return to your side of the road without obstructing the oncoming traffic or getting in the way of vehicles you are overtaking.

Take extreme care when overtaking on roads with undivided carriageway. Impatient drivers may not want to reduce their speed and may remain in the middle of the road resulting in head-on collisions.

When overtaking, keep in mind:
 Overtake from the right of the vehicles you are passing
 Do not overtake if the driver of the vehicle in front of you indicates that he is turning right.
 Never cut onto heavy vehicles. They need more room to slow down and stop.

Do not attempt to overtake if:
 Your passing is likely to cause inconvenience or danger to other traffic proceeding in any direction.
 You are near a pedestrian crossing , intersection or railway crossing
 You are on a road where overtaking is not allowed.
 The vehicle you are wanting to overtake has started accelerating
 The vehicle to be overtaken is displaying ‘L’ plate.
 Emergency vehicle
 VIP entourage
 you cannot see clearly ahead due to dazzle of oncoming traffic
 a large vehicle is blocking your vision, as there may be slow moving vehicles in front

RULES OF ROAD(Part 1)

2010-02-19T23:48:00.000-08:00

Keep left
How far from the left side of the road you should drive depends upon the road condition and the type of traffic on it. But, as a driver you must drive sufficiently to the left

Lane driving
Every road has lanes, whether marked or not. Where they are not marked, divide the road mentally into appropriate lanes. Where it is marked, drive within your lane. Change only if it is safe to do so and after giving a proper signal. A good driver never weaves in and out of a lane. In a traffic hold-up, don’t try to get ahead by jumping the queue or by cutting into another lane.

Changing Lanes
If you need to move into another lane, check through your rear view mirror and look over your shoulder for the traffic following you, if it is safe, give the proper signal and then change lanes. After you have changed your lane or overtaken, make sure that the indicator given to change lane is switched off.

Turning left and right
Whether you are going to make a left or right turn, you should be in the correct lane well before reaching the intersection. You should be in the lane closest to the direction in which you are going to turn. Never turn from the wrong lane across another lane of traffic. This unexpected move can be dangerous.

Reverse driving
Reverse driving could be dangerous. Make sure you have rear side view mirrors on you left and right doors in addition to the one fitted inside.

Before you reverse make sure there are no pedestrians, specially children or any other impediments on the road behind you. Be particularly careful of the blind areas that are obscured form the driver’s seat. Never reverse from a side road on to a main road.

BASIC PRINCIPLES OF ROAD SAFETY

2010-02-17T23:05:00.000-08:00

o Respect traffic rules/regulations and signs/symbols: As a road user your acts should be governed by an inborn will to be safe and let others safe on roads. This would come only when you have respect for traffic rules and regulations. Lookout for road signs and symbols and follow them.

o Maintain your cool even in adverse situations: You may be burdened with unending number of problems at the home or office, but keep them aside before you venture on to the roads. Always keep yourselves fresh and cool.

o Care & concern for others: Keep in mind that you are not the sole owner of roads but others have similar right on it. Remember that road is not a place to show anger. Prevention of accident should be a major concern of road users.

o Be prepared for any kind of eventuality: Drivers and pedestrian may behave in an unpredictable manner. As a road user you should judge the situation correctly and act accordingly.

Indian Road Congress: Pedestrian Facilities Norms

2010-02-10T01:35:00.000-08:00

General Principles:

• Pedestrian facilities should be planned in an integrated manner to ensure continuous flow.
• Reduce conflict between pedestrians and vehicles.
• Convinience is paramount.

Footpath / sidewalk:

• Should be on both sides
• Minimum width 1.5 meters
• There are criteria based on pedestrians per hour and width of footpath may have to be as much as 4 meters
• In shooping areas, width should be increased by 1 meter (to be treated as dead width)
• When adjacent to building, fences - dead width has to be 0.5 meters

Pedestrian Crossings:

• Types - at grade and grade separated

At grade crossings (crosswalks): Covers both - crossings at intersections and mid-block, can be controlled / uncontrolled by signals.

• Zebra width - 2 to 4 meters
• Not within 150 meters from each other
• Median strip should be adequate width (this is the only reference to pedestrian refuges)
• Mid-block crossings should be provided when distance between two consecutive intersections is more than 300 meters
• Controlled crossings - warranted when one or more of following apply - peak pedestrian volume per hour (P) and vehicles are such that PV (V is squared) more or equal to 10 to the power of 8, approach speeds 65kph, wait times for pedestrians are too long (time not specified) and finally accidents records indicate 5 or more pedestrian injuries a year (not deaths, so threshold is low)
• Control measure could be a push button pelican signal when pedestrians are fewer.

Grade separated: subways / foot over bridges - 2.5 meter width and height, but 4-6 meters width is advisable (there are criteria based on capacity considerations)

Road Safety for Children

2010-02-04T22:19:00.000-08:00

More than 260000 children globally die from traffic injuries. They may have been pedestrians, bicyclists, car occupants, motorcycle riders or motorcycle passengers, or passengers on public transport. In some countries, children work on the streets, usually selling merchandise, where they weave in and out of moving traffic. Disabilities and impairments can hinder the progress of children in their early years depriving them of education and social development.

Traditionally, road safety for children has focused on road safety education - with the assumption that children must be taught how to adapt their behaviour. However, when used in isolation education does not deliver permanent reductions in traffic deaths and serious injuries. The systems approach has proved valuable in delivering greater road safety for children.

Care of the victim

2010-02-04T22:17:00.000-08:00

For every person who dies of a traffic accident injury, hundreds more are injured. Providing good support and care to victims is essential. Appropriate services for the injured can prevent fatalities, reduce the amount of short and long-term disabilities and help victims cope with the impact of injury on their lives.

There is a pressing need to strengthen the quality and availability of pre-hospital trauma care throughout the world. Simple measures such as positioning the victim correctly while waiting for emergency services can mean the difference between life and death. There is an equally a pressing need to strengthen the quality and availability of trauma care at hospitals and clinics. Many low-cost improvements could be made to enhance the care of injured persons including human (training and staffing) and physical resources (infrastructure, equipment and supplies).

Apart from the physical trauma, every road incident with injuries has psychological consequences. Psychological support is essential for both the person involved in a road crash and for relatives.

source-gtkp resource centre
www.gtkp.com

(c) Law regarding drunken driving

2010-01-28T22:25:00.000-08:00

In terms of section 185 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 alcohol exceeding 30 MG for 100 ml of blood detected in the test of breath analyzer qualifies for prosecution under the Act.

(b) Daylight use of front-lights

2010-01-28T22:24:00.000-08:00

It is not mandatory in India to keep the front or back lights on during the day. In a country with abundant sunlight, the need for this measure has not been felt.

(a)Use of helmets

2010-01-28T22:23:00.000-08:00

Section 129 of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 makes it compulsory on the part of all two-wheeler riders and pillion riders to wear a protective head gear conforming to relevant Indian standards. The law however makes certain exceptions for persons who can not use helmets on account of the religious reason of having to wear turbans. The law also empowers State Governments to exempt certain categories of two-wheeler users by notification in their official gazettes. The judicial proclamations on the issue have consistently supported use of helmets. Recently the Central Government has also mandated sale of a helmet conforming to Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) along with the first-time sale of a two-wheeler. It has not been possible on the part of police authorities in the States to fully enforce the provision on wearing of helmets on account of lack of adequate personnel and stiff resistance by the community of two-wheeler riders. The Central Government has been launching awareness campaigns on the issue.

In case of accidents on roads

2010-01-26T22:33:00.000-08:00

Be careful and safe on highways

2010-01-26T22:31:00.000-08:00

Informatory Signs on Roads in India

2010-01-26T22:29:00.000-08:00

Cautionary Signs on Indian Roads

2010-01-26T22:23:00.000-08:00

Mandatory Signs ---Road signs in india

2010-01-26T22:19:00.000-08:00

Know road signs,recognise and follow them

2010-01-26T22:16:00.000-08:00

सड़क चिन्ह यातायात नियंत्रण के लिए एक महत्वपूर्ण माध्यम है,उनका पालन करें.

Tiredness may be a reason for accident

2010-01-24T23:41:00.000-08:00

Over loading in a vehicle is dangerous

2010-01-24T23:39:00.000-08:00

Driving in wrong direction is dangerous

2010-01-24T23:38:00.001-08:00

थोड़ी सी जल्दी के लिए अपनी और दूसरों की जान जोखिम में न डालें।

use helmets and seat belts

2010-01-24T23:30:00.000-08:00

हर छोटी या लम्बी यात्रा पर हेलमेट व सीट बेल्ट का प्रयोग करे .

Limit speed of your vehicle for safety

2010-01-24T23:26:00.000-08:00

Use roads with safety

2010-01-24T23:24:00.000-08:00

सड़क सुरक्षा कोई संयोग की बात नहीं.कोई अनावश्यक खतरा मोल न लें.

Be Careful while crossing road

2010-01-22T23:39:00.000-08:00

निर्धारित स्थान पर सड़क पार करना सुरक्षित होता है.

Walk safe on Highways

2010-01-22T23:35:00.000-08:00

हाई वे पर सुरक्षित चलें

हाई वे पर वाहनों की गति अति तीव्र होती है। अधिक सावधानी और संयम से चलिए ।

Road Safety Campaign

2010-01-22T23:32:00.000-08:00

सड़क सुरक्षा अभियान

Safe use of National Highways

2010-01-22T23:01:00.000-08:00

Speed management : A road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners

2010-01-21T23:42:00.000-08:00

The third good practice manual jointly prepared by GRSP, WHO, the FIA Foundation and the World Bank, on speed management, was launched by GRSP ahead of the United Nations General Assembly discussion on road safety later this month. Speed has been identified as a key risk factor in road traffic injuries, influencing both the risk of a road traffic crash as well as the severity of the injuries that result from crashes. For instance, pedestrians have a 90% chance of survival if hit by a car travelling at a speed of 30km/h or below, but less than a 50% chance of surviving an impact of 45km/h or above.
This speed management manual proposes simple, effective and low-cost solutions to excessive and inappropriate speed that can be implemented on a national or local level. It targets governments, non-governmental organizations and road safety practitioners, particularly those in low- and middle-income countries. The manual is based on a modular structure that provides evidence, examples, case studies and practical steps on how to manage vehicle speed.
The manual essentially provides guidance on the following:
• The background evidence on why speed is a risk factor and why it is important to start a speed management programme;
• The steps needed to undertake a problem assessment in a country;
• How to plan and implement a programme, including setting up a working group, developing a plan, examples of laws and enforcement, how to develop public education and publicity campaigns; and finally
• How to evaluate the programme.
The key principles and practical steps that this manual presents can easily be adapted and made relevant to different contexts around the world. The partners on this manual hope that this document will be used by policy-makers, decision-makers and other players to support the implementation of speed management programmes in different countries.

Download Manual

Source--http://www.who.int/roadsafety/projects/manuals/seatbelt/en/

Drinking and driving – an international good practice manual

2010-01-21T23:39:00.000-08:00

The second good practice manual, on drinking and driving, was launched by the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) ahead of the UN Road Safety Week.

Drinking and driving is one of the main causes of road crashes worldwide. In high-income countries about 20% of fatally injured drivers have excess alcohol in their blood, while in some low- and middle-income countries these figures may be up to 69%. Effective drinking and driving programmes have the potential to save thousands of lives, and was identified by the World report on road traffic injury prevention as a proven and effective measure to reduce death and injury on the road.
The good practice manual Drinking and driving, a road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners, proposes simple, effective and low-cost solutions to prevent drinking and driving that can be implemented on a national or local level. It targets governments, non-governmental organizations and road safety practitioners, particularly those in low and middle-income countries.
The manual draws on experience from countries that have succeeded in reducing drinking and driving and includes guidance on the following:
• The background evidence to start a drinking and driving programme,
• The steps needed to undertake a problem assessment in a country,
• How to plan and implement a programme, including setting up a working group, developing a plan, examples of laws and enforcement, how to develop public education and publicity campaigns, and finally how to evaluate the programme.
In developing this manual the authors have drawn on case studies from around the world to illustrate ‘good practice’. The manual will be implemented in a number of countries over the next two years, starting in China through the Global Road Safety Partnership’s GRSI initiative, but extending to cover countries from Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.
Drinking and driving was produced in collaboration with the WHO, World Bank, and FIA Foundation as the second in a series of road safety good practice manuals being published as part of the UN Road Safety Collaboration.
GRSP Chief Executive David Silcock said "drinking and driving is one of the major causes of road crashes and often innocent victims, not the drunk driver, are killed or maimed. We will work closely with our partners around the world to apply this good practice and urge all committed to road safety to take a long hard look at the issue in their country".

Download Manual

Source--http://www.who.int/roadsafety/projects/manuals/seatbelt/en/

Helmets: a road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners

2010-01-21T23:37:00.000-08:00

Many countries around the world are facing the problem of a rapidly rising number of people injured or killed while riding two-wheelers – motorcycles and bicycles. A large proportion of the deaths and severe injuries result from injuries to the head. Helmets are effective in reducing the likelihood of head injuries, as well as their severity. Increasing helmet use in a country is thus an important way of improving road safety.
This manual provides practical advice to road safety practitioners on how to achieve a much higher proportion of users of two-wheeled vehicles wearing helmets. It follows on from the World report on road traffic injury prevention, which described evidence that setting and enforcing mandatory helmet use is an effective intervention for reducing injuries and fatalities among two-wheeler users. The manual is one of a series of documents produce by an informal consortium (WHO, the Global Road Safety Partnership, the World Bank, and the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society) that aims to provide guidance to countries on how to implement some of the recommendations identified within the World Report, and thus improve their overall road safety record.
The manual is for use in countries that want to improve the rates of helmets use among users of two-wheelers, locally or at national level. It is targeted at governments, nongovernmental organizations and road safety practitioners. As well as providing the necessary background evidence that will be useful to anyone starting a helmet programme, it provides technical advice on the steps needed to assess the helmet situation in a country, on how to design and implement a helmet use programme in response to such an assessment, and on the need to evaluate the programme so that the impact of what has been implemented can be assessed, and so that the programme can be improved accordingly.

Download Manual

Source--http://www.who.int/roadsafety/projects/manuals/seatbelt/en/

Seat-belts and child restraints: a road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners

2010-01-21T23:17:00.000-08:00

Officially launched on 6 February 2009, the fourth in this series of good practice manuals, jointly prepared by the FIA Foundation for the Automobile and Society, the Global Road Safety Partnership, the World Bank and WHO, focuses on seat-belts and child restraints. The launch event was held in Costa Rica in the presence of the country’s Transport Minister, Karla Gonzalez; former Formula One driver, Michael Schumacher; and Make Roads Safe Campaign Ambassador, Michelle Yeoh.

Failure to use a seat-belt is a major risk factor for road traffic deaths and injuries among vehicle occupants. Passengers who are not wearing seat-belts at the time of a collision account for the majority of occupant road traffic fatalities.

The manual is a practical guide to implementing, enforcing and evaluating seat-belt and child restraint programmes, and consists of a series of 'how to' modules. It provides evidence of why the use of seat-belts and child restraints is important and takes the users through the steps needed to assess the situation in their own countries. It then explains the steps needed to design, plan and implement a seat-belt and child restraint programme. Finally, the manual guides users on how to monitor and evaluate such programmes so that the results can be fed back into programme design. For each of these activities, the document outlines in a practical way the various steps that need to be taken.

Download Manual

Source--http://www.who.int/roadsafety/projects/manuals/seatbelt/en/

Statement by Floor Lieshout,YOURS-Youth for Road Safety at First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety

2010-01-21T03:18:00.000-08:00

President Medvedev,honourable ministers,distinguished guests,my fellow youth delegates,

Statistics show that if I die next week,among all possible causes of death,a traffic crash is the most likely.As a native of the Netherlands-one of the safest countries in the world-I am still more likely to die from a road crash than from any other cause.My peers-in particular young men like my self-from many other countries of the world face an even greater risk of dying on the road.

Globally,road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for young people.Everyday more than 1000 young lives are ended and thousands more young people are injured on the world's roads.Unfortunately,many oung people are also implicated in the causes of these tragedies,particularly as drivers.In most regions of the world these numbers will continue to rise,if urgent action is not taken now.

This is why we young people have mobilized and taken the decision to be part of the solution.Yesterday we met with enthusiastic and committed youth leaders from all regions of the world.I am honoured to speak on their behalf of so many young people.

In 2007 the First World Youth Assembly for Road safety was organized by the World Health Organisation and the UN Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva.More than 400 young people from over 100 countries addressed road safety.After the Assembly they returned home to meet with ministers in their countries,flag the issue in national media and launch safety campaigns.

YOUTH DECLARATION MOSCOW

2010-01-21T01:58:00.000-08:00

Youth Leaders Commit to a Decade of Action for Road Safety

The leaders of today and tomorrow working together to increase road safety,save young lives,and prepare for safer generation.

Your excellencies,leaders of the world today,decision and policy makers,as you discuss the causes and implications of the road safety problem and adopt a Decade of Action we urge you to keep in mind the victims of road crashes,especially all the young people we have lost too soon;young people who were breadwinners,protecting their families from poverty;young people who could have made a difference in your countries and in our world.

On the 8th of November 2009,the day before the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety,we,youth leaders from many countries,participated in a Youth Meeting to raise awareness of the critical position of youth in traffic and to discuss how young people can work together with different stakeholders to control the impact of this world wide epidemic,especially in the context of the declared Decade of Action for Road Safety.

Young people under 25 years represent almost 40% of the victims of road traffic injuries.Annually,we lose around 400,000 young lives and damage millions more.This means that every month,we are losing more than 30,000 lives and every day,a day just like this one,more than 1,000 young lives are coming to end.We are certain that you share not only our concern,but are keen to change this situation.We are confident that you, like us,refuse to pay this high a price for transportation,transportation that was initially mean to better our lives.

We,young people,commit ourselves to play a significant role in the Decade of Action.Youth initiatives have already spurred in tens of countries and we will make sure more will be born.Since the World Youth Assembly for Road Safety in 2007,a global youth network has been established and we will work to expand it and strengthen it.Finally,what was once only a dream of zealous young people is now a certain reality.YOURS-Youth for Road Safety-is the first global youth-led NGO for road safety and it will start its activities after the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety.

We therefore urge you to:

1.Talk about youth and Road safety issues,learn about the situation of young people on the roads of your country and bring their issues to the forefront.

2.Design road safety policies and programs that address youth congress and engage young people in their planning and implementation.

3.Invest in young people in your country,build youth capacities,and support local youth road safety initiatives.

4.Support the mission of YOURS by connnecting us to local road safety stakeholders and youth groups,sharing your knowledge and experience,providing technical expertise,and/or providing financial resources.

"The deepest definition of youth is life as yet untouched by tragedy"

6. Examples of Good Practice

2010-01-17T21:19:00.000-08:00

In Bangladesh,where road safety education is limited,one organization,the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed,has been begun sending current and former patients who were paralyzed in road accidents to visit schools and discuss their tragedy.The centre has also produced road safety advice leaflets,which it distributes to schools.NGO promotion of road safety is the objective of a recent World Bank initiative in Bangladesh.
Fiji has recently introduced traffic safety into curriculum.A teachers' guide is being developed and the National Road Safety Council in association with the Department of Education is introducing a number of initiatives,including visiting drama groups to present safety plays for school children and development of a road safety character called "Road Ranger"to provide safety advice.
Several road safety education booklets have been produced recently in India.The previously mentioned Loss Prevention Association's Publication and Dealing with Traffic-A guide for Young People were produced from the proceeds of an art exhibition held during The International Conference on Traffic Safety in New Delhi in 1991.
In kazakstan,the traffic police are active in the organization of road safety lessons by teachers in the schools.Parents are also involved with the parents of entry classes being tested themselves on their road safety knowledge.Parents are requested to help their children identify and map out a safe route to school.
A road safety education project in Nepal funded by the Overseas Development Administration(ODA)of the United Kingdom(UK)has produced local safety education materials,including readers,workbooks,posters,and teachers guides.
These materials were produced by ateam of writes from the Primary Education Curriculum Text Book Design Unit after undergoing a week's orientation,which included field visits to rehabilitated roads,discussions with traffic police and pediatricians,and a brief review of road safety materials designed for schools in the UK.
Puppet shows were used to introduce the topic of road safety education into primary schools as well as women's groups and road side communities.
The experiences of accident victims are used in many countries to emphasis the personal consequences of road accidents.In Denmark,a team of people crippled in road accidents visit schools as part of an RSE program.In the United States(US),Mother Against Drunk Drivers often send representatives to speak to schools,especially,the age groups where students are starting to drive.
All speakers must be properly trained and can serve an effective supplementary role.

5. BENEFITS AND EFFECTS

2010-01-16T03:14:00.000-08:00

The potential benefits of RSE for children include the following:

1)increased awareness and knowledge of traffic enviornment;
2)appropriate survival skills necessary for the safe use of the road enviornment;
3)understanding of the behavior and attitudes taht have an influence on road safety ;
3)understanding of the behavior and attitudes that have an influence on road safety;
4)knowledge and understanding of how humans,vehicles,and systems interact with work;
5)decision making skills taht will enable them to make choices and to take responsibility for their own safety and that of others;
6)esteem and care for other people;
7)knowledge and understanding of the causes and consequences of road accidents;and
8)necessary knowledge,understanding,and skills to travel safely in or on a vehicle,while showing consideration for others.

Research shows that human error plays a large part in road accidents.It is a contributory factor in about 95 percent of accidents.By teaching the basics of road safety to children,they are prepared for the future and developing positive,safe attitudes tha will have benefit in years to come as thses children become teenagers and then adults.Inculcation of safety skills in children can provide lifelong benefits to society.In countries where the number of motorized vehicle is still increasing,the number of accidents is likely to rise unless steps are taken to educate road users at an early age.

Attitudes developed in the earliest years largely define how the individual behaves on the road in later years.Attitudes are difficult to change once they have been formed.It is easier to teach good habits at an early age than to break bad habits later.RSE has long-term benefits for the community in terms of road users behavior as it helps to develop positive attitudes and values.RSE should commence at an early age-at kindergarten,or even earlier through publicity initiatives aimed at parents.

Road safety education is necessary to provide the basis for improving road user behavior overtime.Because it involves the development of safe,positive attitudes,it will always be a long term investment.This is especially because it is tryin to counteract attitudes and behavior learned from and continually reinforced by parents and others in close contact with the children who tend to pass on unsafe behavior.

Many of a child's attitudes are learned in the first five years of life from their parents and carers.Once developed,attitudes can be difficult to change.

4 Stages of development

2010-01-15T23:26:00.000-08:00

The development of an effective road safety education program in a developing country will most probably involve the country proceeding through a number of stages.The major steps are typically as follows:

1)review of current practices and responsibilities for RSE.RSE provided by schools,police,or service groups should be assessed in light of accident data and recent trends to identify priority areas and opportunities for improvement;

2)short -term and immediate improvements to the current system identified and introduced.To enable RSE to continue in more effective form while more substantial programs are set up,short-term improvements to the existing system should be undertaken.For example,if police team visit school to givetalks on road safety they can increase effectiveness by basic training,content review,and production of worksheets that can be left at the school outings with practical road safety lessons incorporated:

3)introduce RSE pilot project.Areas where road accidents are a serious problem should be targeted first.Local expertise should be developed.Villages near rehabilitated roads are an ideal candidate as the accident risk is increasing.Aid-funded projects are beginning to fund local RSE programs in order to prepare road side communities for expected increases in vehicle speeds and traffic volumes.Local reference material should be produced and may require preliminary road safety awareness seminars offered by an RSE specialist;

4)develop RSE school curriculum contentTo ensure relevant skills are taught to each group in a structured way,RSE policy and plans should be drawn up to improve provision in a sensible and organized manner and to identify priority areas in the country.Clearly defined responsibility for RSE and goood coordination between providers is necessary;

5)produce basic classroom materials and teacher's guides.It is important to ensure relevance of materials to the local situation and to accident problems identified.Teachers' guides and materials should be pilot tested before final production.When a teachers' guide is available,ideally all current and new teachers should have their own copy;

6)improve teacher training.Development and inclusion of road safety in initial teacher training through colleges and continuing professional development.This should include the abilities of different aged children,implications for their behavior on the roads,how to teach safety effectively,how road safety issues can be incorporated into current current school topics,and an introduction to available teaching materials;

7)introduce community education initiativesTo ensure road safety messages reach children who are unable to attend school on a regular basis and to educate parents and older generations,communiti education programs should include RSE.(Once schools are all teaching road safety,RSE can be expanded to involve NGOs for supplemental support).

(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

3.6 Policy Coordination

2010-01-15T22:10:00.000-08:00

Lack of awareness by policymakers of the need for RSE can be an impediment in improving this sector.It is often the case that there is ad hoc road safety education already taking place.A national road safety council(NRSC),or similar body has a vital role to play in coordinating road safety nationally,to increase efficiency and prevent duplication of effort.This is especially important when there are limited resources available in this sector.

Many government and nongovernment organizations(NGO)can play a role in RSE.Obviously,the ministry of education is an important player,but also ministries of health,police,etc.,can play a part.Highlighting of accident problems,and even a network national accident database,and even a national accient database,can help to direct activity in all organizations towards the same target.

For the development of road safety within a country,it is essential that information,ideas,and examples of good practice are disseminated among professionals working in the field.At the very least,if there is no NRSC in place,this could be done within the appropriate ministry.Information could be shared by:

1) regular meetings or seminars;
2) a newsletter;
3) membership of overseas road safety organization to keep abreast of current international advances;and
4) training-external and in-house.

In some countries,the private sector(e.g.,banks,insurance companies,manufactures,and distributors)are willing to invest in road safety as part of their corporate responsibility and/or marketing and public relations,strategies.The association of insurance companies in India has funded development of road safety education materials.Businesses may be willing to finance publication costs in return for sponsorship credit or company logos printed on the publications.
Although it is generally recommended that there should be an increase in road safety tution through schools,police teams already in existence in many countries do have a role in supplementing this,and supporting topic work.However,one problem that the officers face is that they are unlikely to stay in one section of the police for a long period.
Valuable resources are lost by training officers for this specific role and then losing their expertise.Consideration should perhaps be given to road safety being a career position within the police.

(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

3.5 Community Education

2010-01-15T21:56:00.000-08:00

Once formal education practices are established,it is necessary to turn attention towards nonformal education methods to bring road safety education to children who do not regularly attend school,especially in high risk areas.
There are various options available.One community-based program that it may be possible to use is Child -to -child,which has been developed and used in many counties around the world.The basis of the program is that children attending school are taught about various health and social problems,and how to deal with them.This includes such issues as water,maleria,AIDS,and an element of road safety.The children are encouraged to disseminate the information to younger children and their parents,and to take practical action in their communities to improve their own chances of survival.Many of the materials are available in different languages.

Other community groups that can help in getting the road safety message across include the Scouts and Guides and women's group (e.g, literacy or health programs)to teach parents how to teach their children to be safe.

Community education should also be used to emphasize lifelong learning and to build links between home,community,and school.

3.4 Teaching Aids

2010-01-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

Research from other countries has shown that it is important taht effecive road safety education does not rely simply on talks by visiting speakers at irregular intervals.Talks can supplement ongoing,curricular-based class room work,but are arguably more effective if supported by teaching resources.Some countries have found it beneficial to establish specialist road safety officers to assist and support teachers-by providing ideas,resources,and teaching materials.Materials for use in the classroom can include,but are not lmited,to the following:
1) worksheets;
2) posters;
3) teaching pack;
4) slides;
5) books and games; and
6) videos.

The most basic of these to produce are the worksheets,which are cheap and therefore easy to reproduce.These should concentrate on vocabulary development for young children and then move onto crossing skills and more complex issues as the children"s ages increase.

Inittially,resource can be adapted from those of other countries,an approach that minimizes development costs and time implications,but eventually local resources-teaching packs,worksheets,videos,and posters-should be produced.There should always be the option for adapting resources for local needs,as materials that are appropriate in one area of a country may not be as relevant else where and vice versa.It is also useful to have good quality resources that can be used immediately while a comprehensive curriculum is developed.Approaches used in other teaching areas can be used for road safety.For example,if puppet shows are popular among children,they can be used as an effective carrier for road safety messages.In some countris,including Malaysia,computer-based learning is popular with secondry students.
.(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

3.3 Teacher Training

2010-01-15T04:12:00.000-08:00

Teacher training should be of existing teachers,through a series of local seminars,and of new teachers entering the profession,through the teacher training colleges.To train all teachers in basic road safety teaching throughout a country is alarge commitment.It is unlikely to be achievable unless a dedicated person is apponted to this task,full time,for at least two years.Their role should be primarily to train trainers to run road safetyseminaars,for head teachers initially,but then covering all class teachers.They could also be involved in resource development to gradually build up the road safety materials available in a country.
In a longer term,it will be necessary to include a road safety element in initial teacher training courses to ensure that teachers coming into the profession are fully equipped to teach road safety to their students.

3.2 Teachers ' Guide

2010-01-15T03:38:00.000-08:00

Once there is adequate provision in the curriculum,it is necessary to give teachers the correct information to be able to teach road safety effectively.By producing ateachers'guide,and distributing it to schools,the ability of teachers to teach road safety will be increased substantially.In countries where the majority of primary school age children do attend school,it is appropriate to concentrate initially on increasing and impoving the road safety education through the schools,before considering options for non formal education.

Production and dissemination of a full teachers"guide will facilitate the process of encouraging road safety teaching in schools and will give teachers a permanent remnder and source of reference in the classroom.The guide should enable teachers to teach the concepts included in the core curriculum and ideally should be produced in a large enough quantity for every primary school teacher to have a personal copy.

(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

3.1 Road Safety in the curriculum

2010-01-15T02:17:00.000-08:00

Road Safety is too important and complex to be dealt with by simple messages given a few times a year .Experience from various countries has shown repeatedly one-off talks by visiting speakers(eg.,police or other well meaning groups)are not particularly effective unless they are part of ongoing work in the school through a structured program of RSE.
It is essential for long-term prospects of road safety education in schoolsthat there is adequate provision in the national curriculum.This is the building block on which further traffic education is based.
Without this,there will be only ad hoc activity with little control of content.By specifying what should be taught to each age group ,some control over content and quality will be achieved.The curriculum content must of course be well-defined,based on sound educational principles and should reflect local needs and accident problems.

Road safety is an area of work that fits naturally into many topics and centres of interest already going on in schools.It can provide a vehicle for basic skills of literacy and numeracy as well as being a topic in its own right,for example,within life skills,social studies,or health education.

Where possible,specific road safety lessons can be included in the school timetable,but it should also be incorporated into other subjects throughout the year.
In addition to being appropriate for the age group,road safety lesson content should also be relevant to local conditions,include practical road side training,and be reinforced on a regular basis.There is often atendency to over emphasize the teaching of road signs and traffic lights equates to road safety.

There should be more emphasis on teaching survival skills in progressive manner taht is appropriate to each age group.Rather than rigid rules that may not be applicable in a new situation they come across,children need to be taught concepts for survival.For example,teaching children that must cross the road at traffic lights may cause confusion if the lights are not working properly ,or if there are none in the locality.It is preferable to teach rules and principle for crossing the road that can be applied equally to traffic light controlled junctions,marked pedestrian crossings,rural roads,or other situations.

Like other measures aimed at increasing road safety in our country,actual problems should be identified and specific age groups targeted,based on accident data.For example,if there is an accident problem involving 10-12 yers ols crossing roads,this should be highlighted in the curriculum.

It has been shown that it may be more effective to teach children the skills needed to cross a specific road by practicle training;i.e.,to concentrate on behavior.

As they grow,older children will be able to generalize specifc situations and actions to other sitations.There is evidence that practical training is the most effective means of improving young children's skills and judgements and therefore,they will learn about road safety best by being exposed to real traffic situations in a controlled,safe manner.However,classroom-based RSE can help,for the following reasons:

1)without effective classroom work,children may not give sufficient attention or priority to the dangers of road use:and

2)without effective classroom work,children may not learn the vocabulary of the road,may not have concepts such as car stopping distances explained to them,and may not understand exactly how they are in danger or putting others in danger.

However,classroom work alone will not improve critical skills such as road crossing.Supervised practise in the traffic situation is much more effective and should be carried out as close to the age as psssible when children in the community start using the roads on their own.

Many countries have trafic parks but rarely do the conditions inside the parks refelct the conditions on real roads that children have to cross in that country.

There is a little point in teaching children in the park on roads with well maintained foootpaths and a well-marked,well-signposted road network if these do not exist in their local environment.It is more effective to teach children on real,local roads under proper adult supervision.Groups should be small,with a high ratio of adults to children to ensure safety.Classroom and practical lessons need to be given on a regular basis to reinforce safe road use behavior in children.Road safety eduation should be incorporated into the national curriculum with lessons
conducted on regular basis.
(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

WHY IS ROAD SAFETY EDUCATION(RSE)NEEDED

2010-01-15T01:57:00.000-08:00

Children in many motorized countries are more likely to die or be injured as a result of a road accident,than through any other cause.In developing countries,20 percent of traffic deaths are people under the age of 15 and threat of road accidents will increase with motorization.Several factors contribute to this risk to children in developing countries:

1)both the speed and volume of motor vehicle traffic will increase,especially on rehabilitated roads;

2)roadside friction will continue as poor land use planning,operational control,and limited road space lead to conflicting uses of road and roadsides;

3)road improvements tend to focus on motor vehicle requirements and not pedestrian needs;

4)traffic police can offer only limited help as they are poorly equipped to control motor vehicle traffic and not properly trained to consider pedestrian needs;and

5)most parents are unable to provide road safety training as they themselves never received any training and even if they did,traffic conditions have changed dramatically since their childhood.

RSE is needed to provide the necessary structure for the acquisition of safety knowledge and skills.These include decision making skills,and the identification and assessment of risk and strategies to reduce these risks.RSE attempts to prepare children for different tasks at each stage of their increasingly independent use of the road network and,later,as adults.(Source---asian development bank Road safety guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region)

Road Safety Guidelines for the Asian and Pacific Region(by Asian Development Bank)Part 1

2010-01-14T22:44:00.000-08:00

ROAD SAFETY EDUCATION OF CHILDREN
On average,20 percent of all people killed in traffic accidents in developing countries are aged under 15.This is twice as high as in the developed world.

----Human error plays a large part in road accidents,being a contributory factor in about 95 percent of accidents.

----Teaching safety skills to children can provide life long benefits to society.

Roads in developing countries are often more unsafe than roads in industrial countries and the traffic safety problems faced by children will often be greater in the developing world.Absence of traffic education can leave children exposed to unnecessary risk.Since the traffic circumstances and problems faced by such children are very different,it is inappropriate to simply use teaching materials from developed countries,they will need to be adapted to reflect the needs,problems,and circumstances of relevance to local children.

In addition,an incremental approach is needed to improve road safety education.Road safety provision should not rely on only occasional,isolated talks by visiting speakers but should include regular practical training.Essential components in developing and improving this sector are as follows:
* inclusion of road safety in the school curriculum appropriate to each group;
*development and production of classroom materials;
*production of a teacher"s guide and disseminationto all teachers;
*inclusion of road safety in teacher training courses; and
*coordination of activity and clearly defined responsibilities.
PRIORITY ACTONS NEEDED

1. Review current extent of road safety education in school curriculum and asses adequacy and practicality of lessons and materials.

2.Develop road safety education pilot projects in high risk areas,especially around roads being rehabilitated where the road accidents are likely to increase.

3.Strengthen road safety education in national curriculum with on-road practical lessons.

Children need to be made more aware of road safety and should be taught survival skills appropriate to their age and needs.Teaching of road safety in schools is best done by teachers who have themselves been trained on road safety issues and who can provide such instruction on a regular basis to their students.

Awareness slogans: Are they meaningless?(Cover Story)

2010-01-12T03:46:00.000-08:00

The State government seems to be putting too much stress on awareness campaigns, particularly slogans. But international experts feel that such isolated campaigns on road safety have negligible impact on the driving behaviour.

Studies show that the drivers are generally aware that bad driving behaviour like overspeeding is responsible for road accidents, but continue to do so until punitive action is taken. For example, a study by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) found that 99 per cent of the drivers who drink and drive agree that it (drinking and driving) is dangerous and 97 per cent were aware that it is prohibited under laws. This means that the government is spending most of its efforts and money to teach the drivers something they already know.

According to Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP), road safety awareness campaigns in India are ineffective because they are not built on a scientific basis. Unless the campaigns serve as a prelude to well-coordinated punitive actions for bad driving behaviour, the slogans won’t be worth the papers they are written on. The fact that road accidents have increased despite repeated awareness campaigns, should make the government re-examine its strategies.

Drunken driving

With alcohol consumption catching up as part of popular culture, drunken driving is the single largest reason for road accidents. According to a WHO study, drunken driving is the cause for 44-67 per cent of fatal accidents. The State government’s data says 94-98 per cent of the road accidents are due to driver’s fault, for which drunken driving is a major contributor.

While experience of several countries shows that punitive action alone can deter drunken driving, the number of persons booked by the police in the State on this count is quite low. The Criminal Investigation Department review (2007) says: “Action has been initiated against only 6,557 persons for drunk and driving. Very easily 5 to 6 cases can be booked in each district. That means
booking of 2,000 cases per district is not difficult. With 36 units around 72,000 should be the target against drink driving.”

The situation has not changed much since the number of driving licences cancelled or suspended last year is just around 6,000.

“It is an open secret that every day, hundreds of thousands of men all over the State, park their vehicles in front of liquor bars for indulging in drinking. All of them drive away in these vehicles after drinking in the bars, but the police are merely looking from the sidelines,” says activist A Narayanan.

For some mysterious reason, the police believe that those coming to TASMAC shops in vehicles just buy liquor and go, he says, referring to an reply he received for an RTI application.

Road designing

The government has always believed that building better roads would bring down road accidents. But police records say that around 65-70 per cent of road accidents takes place on national and State highways, which are comparatively ‘better roads’.

Apparently, better roads do not automatically translate into safer roads. For example, the East Coast Road (ECR), which is well maintained, also sees one of largest number of accidents in the city.

Highlighting that newly improved roads need not necessarily be safe, R P Indoria, secretary general, Indian Road Congress, says poor designing of entry and exit points, medians, pedestrian pathways and crossing cause accidents on highways.

Agreeing that road accidents are increasing and urgent measures are required to address it, Transport Commissioner S Machendranathan says motorists have the tendency of overspeeding on better roads, which result in accidents. His department has suggested the installation of ‘speed governors’ to limit the speed of heavy vehicles. It was also in talks with the lorry owners’ associations to avoid long hours at the wheel for drivers.

Machendranathan stresses that roads should be better designed to make it safe. “Even the newly built OMR corridor has defects at 36 points, which can lead to accidents.”

Cine artists do their bit for road safety

Actors S Ve Sheker and Vaiyapuri distributed pamphlets containing messages on road safety to the general public and Metropolitan Transport Corporation drivers at Saidapet bus terminus on Tuesday.

According to K V Karthalingan, RTO (West), the programme was organised as part of the weeklong 21st annual road safety week celebrations conducted till January 7th. The pamphlets emphasise that drivers should not use cell phones while driving, wearing seat belts in case of a four-wheeler and using helmets both by riders and pillion riders.

The office of the Regional Transport Officer, Chennai (West), released the statistics on road accidents in Tamil Nadu during the last two years.

Source-http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Awareness+slogans:+Are+they+meaningless?&artid=9sdVWjkj150=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&SEO=&SectionName=rSY|6QYp3kQ=

Car insurance may come with accident cover

2010-01-12T03:45:00.000-08:00

Road ministry mulls a fee of Rs 15 for such a cover.

The road transport ministry is planning to charge up to Rs 15 on every premium paid for insuring vehicles to fund a scheme to provide cashless hospital facility to victims of accidents on national highways.

“The ministry has suggested charging of Rs 15 as a premium for the vehicle insurance policy,” said a source in the ministry.

There are around 10 million registered vehicles in the country and the total insurance premium collected in 2008-09 was Rs 30,601 crore. The administrative heads of the districts would administer the fund, according to the proposal.

The government is working to provide cashless medical facility under the scheme as accident victims usually have to follow long procedures to get claims from insurance companies.

The government has constituted a committee to find ways to fund the scheme. The committee has members from four public sector insurance companies (National Insurance Companies, New India Assurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Insurance, the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority, the General Insurers (Public) Sector Association and Reliance General Insurance. The committee will submit its report by mid-January.

According to a World Health Organization report of a survey on road safety in 178 countries, constituting 98 per cent of world’s population, India leads in the number of deaths due to road accidents. India reported 105,000 traffic deaths in a year, compared with over 96,000 in China. Also, in India, an estimated two million people have disabilities
resulting from a road accident.

Over 1.2 million people die each year on world’s roads and 20-50 million suffer non-fatal injuries. In most regions of the world, this is increasing. Road traffic injuries are one of the top three causes of death of people between 5 years and 44 years.

Predictions are that by 2030, road traffic injuries will become the fifth leading cause of death worldwide.

Also, a lot of questions has been raised over the safety on the roads in India. Union Roads and Transport Minister Kamal Nath had announced that his ministry aimed of reduce accidents on the roads by half in the next three years.

The road transport and highways ministry had been able to utilise only 10 per cent of the fund allocated for providing road safety during the current financial year till November-end.

But in an embarrassment to the ministry, of the Rs 79 crore it got for safety in the current financial year, it had sued only Rs 7.6 crore till November. Also during the past two financial years, the ministry returned a part of its allocation, utilising Rs 54.9 crore of Rs 73 crore given in 2008-09 and Rs 42.9 crore of the Rs 52 crore allotted in 2007-08.

Primarily, safety of road users is the responsibility of the state governments, but the road transport ministry has schemes to make national highways safer. The ministry is supposed to run awareness campaigns for road safety, provide refresher training to heavy motor vehicle drivers, and provide ambulances and cranes on the highways for post accident care. It also does education and awareness campaigns.

Compulsory `baby seats' in cars and covered trucks will finally touch down on India's highway network, with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway

2010-01-12T03:44:00.001-08:00

TWO key moves that could make Indian roads safer by notches are set to be implemented in 2010. Compulsory "baby eats" in cars and covered rucks will finally touch down n India's expanding highway network, with the Ministry of road Transport & Highways ready to notify the two new rules next year. At present, both proposals are awaiting the Law Ministry's nod.

Moving to radically change he way India's three million plus trucks ply, the government plans to make it mandatory for all trucks to have closed cargo sections with overs at the top and in the ear. The truck driver's cabin too will have to meet certain standards like adequate seating space and controlled cabin temperature, never exceeding 35 degrees Celsius.

The truck body code suggests green tinted windscreen, slide windows, blowers, ventilation points and lining the whole cabin area with heat insulating material for the driver's comfort. No part of the vehicle's fixed component should intrude into the driver's work area -- this will ensure minimal injury in case of accidents.

While the cargo section will be a closed unit, no mountable carrier will be permitted above it. Once the truck body code is notified, all new trucks manufactured in India will have to follow these rules and the existing ones will be given a year's time to upgrade. And when truck covers become a must, the ministry hopes to end the practice of overloading.

"The idea to is to make Indian roads safer and also make trucks safer vehicles.

Maximum road accidents are said to be caused by heavy goods vehicles, mostly trucks.

We have formulated a truck body code as per which all trucks will have standard dimensions and the cargo section will have to be a closed unit, all covered up, as is the norm in most developed countries. This will ensure goods don't spill on to the road in case of an accident.

The severity of accident will also be lessened. Truck specifications will be such that in the event of an accident, minimal damage is caused," said a senior Ministry official. That apart, India will finally take one more crucial step to road safety by mandating the installation of "Child Restraint Systems" (CRS) across all power drive four-wheelers from passenger cars to passenger buses. The idea is to create a safe and designated space for children in cars.

Across Europe and the US, besides other countries like Australia,CRS is mandatory in all vehicles. The planned implementation schedule is two years for new car models and three years for existing models.

The Central Motor Vehicle Rules-Technical Standing Committee has already formulated automotive industry standards in order to make CRS compulsory -- the next big step after making seat belts
compulsory in cars.

Gurgaon traffic police to allot more funds for awareness drives

2010-01-12T03:43:00.001-08:00

FOLLOWING the lead of their Delhi counterparts, the Gurgaon police have now approached their headquarters with the request that they be allowed to spend half the funds collected as fines or challans to raise awareness on traffic safety issues among road users.
The Gurgaon police collected a whopping Rs 4 crore in the form of fines from approximately 84,936 challans issued from January 1 till December 31 in 2009, records show.
"If we can allocate 50 per cent of this amount to teaching commuters -- through various campaigns at school and college levels -- that road safety is largely their own responsibility, it will help bring down the number of fatalities and injuries in road accidents," S S Deswal, Gurgaon Commissioner of Police, said.
As per data available, the number of people killed in road accidents was almost four to five times the number of those killed in other crimes like murders etc, he added.
"If we have more resources, we can carry out informative campaigns though the mass media like newspapers, television, posters and hoardings," the police chief said. He added the police will carry out a massive drive during the Road Safety Week starting from Friday.
"We will issue fewer challans and instead educate people," he said.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satinder Gupta, there has been almost a 23 per cent reduction in the number of deaths or injuries caused by road accidents in all three zones of Gurgaon in 2009, compared to the previous year.
"Through data available, we have marked a couple of priority areas like the Expressway, DLF area and Sushant Lok, where we have carried out intense drives against speeding, drink driving and underage driving.
The results have been encouraging," DCP Gupta said.

Road-safety audit for all big highway projects

2009-12-21T21:27:00.002-08:00

NEW DELHI: From now onwards, updated road safety audits will be carried out on all big road projects including national highways (NHs) to make them safer.

As per the recently approved road safety manual by the Indian Road Congress (IRC), experts will carry the safety audit not just during the design and implementation phases of the projects but also in the post operation period to identify deficiencies and rectify them.

Sources in this premier body of technical highway engineers said the IRC council had approved the road safety audit guideline and this would be published in the next two months. "Once that is in place, all major road projects will follow guidelines mentioned in the manual. Even the state public works department (PWD) constructing major roads could use the guidelines to make the stretches safe," said a senior IRC official.

Booklet on road safety released

2009-12-21T21:27:00.001-08:00

Gurgaon, Dec 21 (PTI) A booklet titled ?A Guide to Road Safety? was released by Gurgaon Police Commissioner S S Deswal today. Published by Tarang, an organisation for road safety and traffic management, this booklet is distributed among students so that they understand traffic rules and it is ensured that children develop habit of following safety measures on roads. Releasing the booklet, Deswal said that Gurgaon police is organising All India Roads Safety Week from January 1 to 7, 2010 to spread awareness regarding safety measures. He appealed every citizen to follow and respect traffic rules, as obeying traffic rules not only ensures smooth flow of traffic, but also saves life of near and dear ones. "Every driver on our roads contributes to humanity by safe driving," Deswal said.

Source-http://www.ptinews.com/news/434209_Booklet-on-road-safety-released

HC forms panel to check menace of fake driving licence(Times of India,December 11,2009)

2009-12-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

New Delhi: With one lakh people dying in road accidents every year in the country, the Delhi High Court has suggested a tough law to check fake driving licence holders and those who issue such licences.
The court has also set up a committee comprising five lawyers and the joint commissioner of police and directed the police to convene a meeting of committee members with insurance companies to have a detailed discussion to sort out the problem on December 14.
While hearing a motor accident case in which the driver had a fake driving licence, Justice J R Midha, in an order, has sent 9 suggestions, submitted by senior counsel Arun Mohan, to the export committee of the ministry of road and transport for consideration.
Advocate Mohan suggested a special cell with an e-mail address to be created to entertain the complaints relating to fake licence holders. Whenever the police registers an FIR against a person for driving with fake licence, particulars of the FIR be entered by the cell in the entry against the information received, the counsel suggested.
He said the cell should prepare a tabulated chart for the information received and look for any pattern within it and take action according to law. The senior lawyer said the details about the offender should be displayed on the website so that the transport authorities in other states can access the information. The cops should maintain a record of e-mails and initiate appropriate action against the offenders and interrogate the owner of the vehicle for allowing a fake licence holder to drive.
He also suggested that MACT should ensure the presence of the driver, the owner and the victim and direct the insurance company to give compensation as immediate help to the victim’s family. The court issued notice to the insurance company and the ministry of road and transport and fixed December 16 as the next date of hearing.

ACTION PLAN

To tackle the menace of fake licences, HC has formed a panel to consider these:
Special police cell for fake driving licences
Control cell to maintain digital records on fake licence
Cell to look for “patterns” to find offenders
Police to weigh option of making information available to transport authority
Frame strict law to provide severe punishment for offenders
Removal of unsafe vehicles and obstructions from the road

Source-http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Daily/skins/TOINEW/navigator.asp?Daily=CAP&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&AW=1260508924156

Overspeeding accounts for over 50% of road accidents(Times of India,December10,2009)

2009-12-10T21:02:00.000-08:00

New Delhi: Exceeding the lawful speed limit is the single biggest reason for road accidents . According to a submission by the road, transport and highways ministry (MoRTH) in Lok Sabha, overspeeding is responsible for over 51% of road accidents whereas driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs is the reason for 5% of road mishaps.
In a written reply, minister of state Mahadev Khandela said in Rajya Sabha that there was an increase in the percentage of road mishaps due to overspeeding. While in 2004, 1,98,72 accidents out of 4,29,910 were due to overspeeding , it shot up to 2,47,371 in 2007 out of the total road accidents of 4,79,216.
Significantly, the ministers reply also highlights the increasing share of pedestrians , cyclists and two-wheeler drivers in the fatalities during 2004-07 . While the share of these three groups as a percentage of total persons killed in road accidents was 29.5%, it touched 40.2% in 2007. This data excludes road accidents in Delhi.
However, traffic experts feel that singling out any one factor for road mishaps is premature since there is no proper investigation of these accidents . In yet another written reply, Khandela informed the Lok Sabha that Tamil Nadu registered the highest number of accidents on national highways with 19,910 in 2007. Maharashtra came second (13,563), followed by Karnataka (13,310) and Andhra Pradesh (13,040).
Interestingly, the ministrys submission claimed that the number of road mishaps on NHs had slipped in 2007.

http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/mobile.aspx?article=yes&pageid=15&edlabel=CAP&mydateHid=10-12-2009&pubname=&edname=&articleid=Ar01502&format=&publabel=TOI

Delhi gets tough on drink drivers

2009-12-07T23:07:00.000-08:00

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ruled that those driving under the influence of alcohol could lose their driving licence.

The order will empower the police to confiscate the licence of a driver who is found to have consumed alcohol beyond the permissible limit.

Critics say a lot will depend on how strictly the law is implemented.

Activists say tens of thousands of Indians die in road accidents every year because of drink driving.

Campaigners have welcomed the court order.

They say 70% of the 130,000 annual road fatalities are caused by drunk drivers.

Delhi is the second Indian city to get tough with drink drivers - similar strict measures in Mumbai (Bombay) have brought down the number of fatal accidents.

Tough measures

According to the new guidelines, Delhi police will have the authority to take away the licence of a driver driving under the influence of alcohol.

The offender would then have to appear before the transport department which would decide whether his licence should be suspended or cancelled.

The new guidelines are part of a campaign to make Delhi safer ahead of next year's Commonwealth Games.

Recently, the Delhi government proposed several tough measures to deal with drink-driving, including a provision for a fine of up to 50,000 rupees ($1,000) for those caught drinking alcohol in public - by the roadside, inside cars or outside roadside eating places.

The proposals also include imprisonment without bail for offenders.

Campaigners, however, say tough laws alone will not work - what is needed is strict enforcement of the laws.

In the past few months, the city police have been doing random and frequent spot checks near pubs and restaurants to catch drink drivers.

But correspondents say many offenders still manage to get away either by paying bribes or because they are influential.

Source-http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8380204.stm

Road mishap victims to get cashless cover

2009-11-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

New Delhi: In a desperate bid to bring down the number of deaths on the country's roads, the government is looking to provide cashless cover to all road accident victims. Recognising that the first hour after an accident is the "golden hour" during which many lives can be saved if appropriate medical assistance is provided, it intends to bear all expenses incurred by an accident victim in the first 48 hours.

The government might, in turn, pay the hospitals via an escrow account. Moreover, the government intends to earmark 1% of its earnings from the cess on diesel and petrol for road safety.

A report on road safety released by World Health Organisation in August pointed out that India accounts for most road accident fatalities. As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), road accidents account for 33% of all accidental deaths. NCRB records show 1,14,590 people died in road accidents in 2007.

This data has goaded the government to table a bill for formation of a National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board in the winter session of parliament, which began on Thursday.

The board, which will recommend safety standards, will comprise experts from the field of road engineering, automobile engineering, traffic laws and medical care and oversee road safety activities in the country.

"In order to maintain the board's independence, it is proposed to give it financial autonomy by way of creating a National Road Safety Fund by earmarking 1% of the total proceeds of cess on petrol and diesel," an official from the ministry of shipping, road transport and highways said.

The board will work in consultation with the Indian Road Congress for designing, constructing, and operating national highways. It will also lay down guidelines for multi-disciplinary crash investigations and for collecting, reporting and analysing data of accidents by the different agencies involved.

The board will maintain a comprehensive database on road safety related matters.

Source-http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_road-mishap-victims-to-get-cashless-cover_1313977

Road accidents claim more lives than terrorism

2009-11-30T21:13:00.000-08:00

CHENNAI: Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who has been expressing concern over the increasing number of casualties in road accidents time and again, on Monday observed that road accidents claim more lives than terrorism.

Inaugurating a two-day national seminar on ‘Road Safety and Urban Traffic Management’, the Chief Minister said he was pained to learn that 13 people die in road accidents every hour and that the country had reported the highest rate of fatalities in the world.

Karunanidhi said nearly 80 per cent of the victims on the road were pedestrians. In big cities, the people who sleep on the pavements form a vulnerable group.

Pointing out that road safety and traffic management were not the sole responsibility of the police department and the government authorities, Karunanidhi said everybody has to contribute to make the roads safer. “Road safety and traffic management must become part of the curriculum right from the school level. Children should be sensitised towards these aspects by developing special package of games and leisure time activities,” he added.

He said the policemen on the road were not just the symbol of the State authority, they must also realise their role as problem solvers responsible for safety and well-being of all the road users.

In Chennai, the length of the road remained static whereas the vehicle population had tripled in the past 15 years. Due to industrial development, Chennai was witnessing a rapid increase in the movement of commercial container lorries. A comprehensive review of traffic management in the urban sector was essential, he said. The CM received a stamp released by Chief Post Master General Chakraborthy to coincide with the 150th year of TN Police.

Source-http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Road+accidents+claim+more+lives+than+terrorism&artid=XFdskUlDdF0=&SectionID=lifojHIWDUU=&MainSectionID=wIcBMLGbUJI=&SectionName=rSY|6QYp3kQ=&SEO=

The report Confronting “Death on Wheels”: Making Roads Safe in Europe and Central Asia, released

2009-11-26T22:12:00.000-08:00

The report Confronting “Death on Wheels”: Making Roads Safe in Europe and Central Asia, released after the first Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety, reviews the size, characteristics, and causes of the road safety problem in ECA countries. The report will help bring into action the agreements reached during the conference held in Moscow on November 19-20, 2009 under the main theme Time for Action. The report finds that the magnitude of the road safety problem in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eastern and Central Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans is much higher than in Western Europe, even though their car fleet is smaller and the number of kilometers they travel by car is lower. The report provides compelling evidence on the economic and social consequences of the silent epidemic and suggests a range of policies and strategies and to confront and prevent “death on wheels”.

Download this book here-http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ECAEXT/Resources/258598-1258495120876/DeathonWheelsWeb.pdf

Pedestrian woes require streamlining unruly traffic

2009-11-26T00:43:00.000-08:00

Source-http://www.dayafterindia.com/nov209/states6.html

Ratnadeep Banerji

How to bell the belligerent drivers on road? The World Health Organization arraigns India of the highest number of road accident deaths than anywhere else in the world, including the more populous China in its global report on road safety. Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), Jaipur and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi brought about an Indo-Swedish collaboration project with Lund University of Sweden. WHO report hints at road fatalities to become the world’s fifth biggest killer by 2030. The rich nations have been able to lower death rates as against a sharp rise in the third world. 90% of deaths on the world’s road are touted to occur in low and middle-income countries though they have just 48% of all registered vehicles. Incredulous enough, the city of Jaipur stands third in the number of road deaths in India, jolting CUTS to embark on this project there and generalize solutions to salvage the problem all over India.

The alacrity of the situation in India arises owing to at least 13 deaths every hour, reckoning the report of the National Crime Records Bureau. In 2007 alone 1.14 lakh fatalities occurred as against 89,455 road deaths in China in 2006. Between 2006 and 2007, a sharp 6.1% rise took place. Statewise, Andhra Pradesh has the highest rate of road accident deaths of 12% closely followed by Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, each contributing 11%. Also, contrary to the popular belief of trucks being the major killer on roads, NCRB reflects these to be the biggest victims of mishaps followed by two-wheeler riders. World over 120000 million people get killed every year. In India, Mumbai, Delhi and Kota witness 79%, 47% and 28% of the total pedestrian deaths in whole India.

One main problem is that road users are not offered any comfortable and safe crossing options and also most of the existing pedestrian crossings are not suited for pedestrian usage. Reduction of average vehicular speeds by 10% de facto results in a 35% reduction of fatalities for pedestrians. It has now been proven that the only way of reaching low speeds is to use physical measures such as humps, speed breakers, rumble-strips and roundabouts prove pragmatic. However, contrary to the popular belief, no amount of professing can assuage the problem. Since the 1930s countries like the UK and the US have paid heed to scientific traffic engineering. But sadly in India, both central and state government while laying forth roads and highways are lackadaisical over safety norms. Experts from Lund University, Sweden feel traffic needs to be calmed below 50 km/hr for India and world alike. Also, the areas prone to vehicle-pedestrian conflict should observe vehicular speed below 30 km/hr.

Extensive field studies were carried in Jaipur in accident prone sites and also case studies complemented with international experiences where pedestrian –vehicle conflicts are rampant. Conflicts were identified and prognosis was done to figure out what led to those situations. Such sites were video-recorded continuously for four days and thereafter analyzed by both Indian and Swedish team. Some measures that proved prudent in Europe can be well implemented in India as well though with local adaptation. The project has come up with a manual, first of its kind in India, which brings out the flaws in the design of Indian roads.

Dr Dinesh Mohan from IIT Delhi lambasts our notions about crawling traffic speed in Indian metros. ‘In several European countries the average speed of vehicles is 20 km/hr. They could not improve it in the last 100 years. In the last 20 years, even the US has not increased traffic speed in any of its cities’. Prof. Geetam Tewari from IIT Delhi shatters a myth, ‘No driving education has ever decreased accidents’. Dr P.S. Pasricha, former DGP Maharashtra makes candid confession –‘India is in bad shape. A lot number of accidents are not reported. 70% of pedestrian causalities are in urban area. Still, we do not have a department on road safety’ remains the travails of our time.

Reported by Ratnadeep Banerji is a writer with varied interests reachable at ratnaub@gmail.com

It’s official: Drink, drive, lose licence (Times of India,November26,2009)

2009-11-25T20:52:00.000-08:00

New Delhi: Driving under the influence of alcohol can now cost you your licence. The Delhi High Court on Wednesday accepted the city transport department’s new guidelines to deal with the menace of drunken driving, among which is the provision of cancelling the offender’s driving licence. The stage is now set for the guidelines to be notified within four weeks.
The new rules arm the Delhi Police with the right to confiscate the licence of a driver found to have consumed alcohol beyond permissible limits. In such cases, a memo would be issued to the driver who would then have to make a representation before the transport department. The department would decide whether the offender’s licence should be suspended or cancelled.
The new guidelines are part of an intensification of the campaign against drunken driving ahead of the Commonwealth Games next year.

New UN resolution recognises motorcycle safety

2009-11-23T20:40:00.000-08:00

Source-http://www.ma.org.au/AM/Template.cfm?Section=News9&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=34970

FIM Chief Executive Officer Guy Maitre and Director of Public Affairs John Chatterton-Ross were in Moscow 19-20 November for the United Nations first Ministerial Conference on road safety.

Opening the conference the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev called for action on a worldwide crisis running at one million three hundred thousand road deaths every year.

President Medvedev called for action on road safety to match other global issues. “Road safety is one of the most serious problems of international development requiring immediate action.”

“We need coordinated international effort. – This is an issue on the level of the global recession and food security.

"The UN Decade of Action will coordinate activity. Like many countries, Russia would benefit from increased international cooperation on road safety if a Decade of Action was adopted.”

The four page declaration includes specific action on vulnerable road users. It reads:

Make particular efforts to develop and implement policies and infrastructure solutions to protect all road users in particular those who are most vulnerable such as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and users of unsafe public transport, as well as children, the elderly and people living with disabilities.

FIM CEO Guy Maitre said: “It was vital to attend – the FIM is a family of 101 national federations representing motorcycling worldwide and our mission runs beyond sport, we are the global advocate for motorcycling.”

FIM Director of Public Affairs John Chatterton-Ross added: “Wire rope barriers? I don’t think so! You can be certain this new and very welcome UN action will be widely quoted from now on as we work with governments to improve safety for riders and other vulnerable road users across the world.”

Video developed by Organizers of First Ministerial Conference,Moscow called-Time For Action

2009-11-22T23:10:00.000-08:00

Hadsoon Ka desh bharat-By NDTV

2009-11-22T21:59:00.001-08:00

First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety: Time for Action(Moscow Declaration)

2009-11-22T21:45:00.000-08:00

Moscow, 19-20 November 2009

We, the Ministers and heads of delegations as well as representatives of international, regional and sub-regional governmental and nongovernmental organizations and private bodies gathered in Moscow, Russian Federation, from 19–20 November 2009 for the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety,
Acknowledging the leadership of the Government of the Russian Federation in preparing and hosting this First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety and the leadership of the Government of the Sultanate of Oman in leading the process for adoption of related United Nations General Assembly resolutions,
Aware that as described in the 2004 World Health Organization/World Bank World report on road traffic injury prevention and subsequent publications, road traffic injuries are a major public health problem and leading cause of death and injury around the world and that road crashes kill more than 1.2 million people and injure or disable as many as 50 million a year, placing road traffic crashes as the leading cause of death for children and young people aged 5–29 years,
Concerned that more than 90% of road traffic deaths occur in low-income and middle-income countries and that in these countries the most vulnerable are pedestrians, cyclists, users of motorised two- and three-wheelers and passengers on unsafe public transport,
Conscious that in addition to the enormous suffering caused by road traffic deaths and injuries to victims and their families, the annual cost of road traffic injuries in low-income and middle-income countries runs to over USD 65 billion exceeding the total amount received in development assistance and representing 1–1.5% of gross national product, thus affecting the sustainable development of countries,
Convinced that without appropriate action the problem will only worsen in the future when, according to projections, by the year 2020 road traffic deaths will become one of the leading causes of death particularly for low-income and middle-income countries,
Underlining that the reasons for road traffic deaths and injuries and their consequences are known and can be prevented and that these reasons include inappropriate and excessive speeding; drinking and driving; failure to appropriately use seat-belts, child restraints, helmets and other safety equipment; the use of vehicles that are old, poorly maintained or lacking safety features; poorly designed or insufficiently maintained road infrastructure, in particular infrastructure which fails to protect pedestrians; poor or unsafe public transportation systems; lack of or insufficient enforcement of traffic legislation; lack of political awareness and lack of adequate trauma care and rehabilitation,
2
Recognizing that a large proportion of road traffic deaths and injuries occur in the context of professional activities, and that a contribution can be made to road safety by implementing fleet safety measures,
Aware that over the last thirty years many high-income countries have achieved substantial reductions in road traffic deaths and injuries through sustained commitment to well-targeted, evidence-based injury prevention programmes, and that with further effort, fatality free road transport networks are increasingly feasible, and that high- income countries should, therefore, continue to establish and achieve ambitious road casualty reduction targets, and support global exchange of good practices in road injury prevention,
Recognizing the efforts made by some low- and middle-income countries to implement best practices, set ambitious targets and monitor road traffic fatalities,
Acknowledging the work of the United Nations system, in particular the long standing work of the United Nations Regional Commissions and the leadership of the World Health Organization, to advocate for greater political commitment to road safety, increase road safety activities, promote best practices, and coordinate road safety issues within the United Nations system,
Also acknowledging the progress of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration as a consultative mechanism whose members are committed to road safety and whose activities include providing governments and civil society with guidance on good practice to support action to tackle major road safety risk factors,
Acknowledging the work of other stakeholders, including intergovernmental agencies; regional financial institutions, nongovernmental and civil society organizations, and other private bodies,
Acknowledging the role of the Global Road Safety Facility established by the World Bank as the first funding mechanism to support capacity building and provide technical support for road safety at global, regional and country levels,
Acknowledging the report of the Commission for Global Road Safety Make roads safe: a new priority for sustainable development which links road safety with sustainable development and calls for increased resources and a new commitment to road infrastructure safety assessment,
Acknowledging the findings of the report of the International Transport Forum and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Towards zero: ambitious road safety targets and the safe system approach and its recommendation that all countries regardless of their level of road safety performance move to a safe system approach to achieve ambitious targets,
Acknowledging the findings of the World Health Organization/UNICEF World report on child injury prevention which identifies road traffic injuries as the leading cause of all unintentional injuries to children and describes the physical and developmental characteristics which place children at particular risk,
Recognizing that the solution to the global road safety crisis can only be implemented through multi-sectoral collaboration and partnerships among all concerned in both public and private sectors, with the involvement of civil society,
3
Recognizing that road safety is a ‘cross cutting’ issue which can contribute significantly to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals and that capacity building in road traffic injury prevention should be fully integrated into national development strategies for transport, environment and health, and supported by multilateral and bilateral institutions through a better aligned, effective, and harmonized aid effort,
Conscious that global results are the effect of national and local measures and that effective actions to improve global road safety require strong political will, commitment and resources at all levels: national and sub-national, regional and global,
Welcoming the World Health Organization's Global status report on road safety – the first country by country assessment at global level – which identifies gaps and sets a baseline to measure future progress,
Also welcoming the results of the projects implemented by the United Nations regional commissions to assist low-income and middle-income countries in setting their own road traffic casualty reduction targets, as well as regional targets,
Determined to build on existing successes and learn from past experiences,
Hereby resolve to:
1. Encourage the implementation of the recommendations of the World report on road traffic injury prevention,
2. Reinforce governmental leadership and guidance in road safety, including by designating or strengthening lead agencies and related coordination mechanisms at national or sub-national level;
3. Set ambitious yet feasible national road traffic casualty reduction targets that are clearly linked to planned investments and policy initiatives and mobilize the necessary resources to enable effective and sustainable implementation to achieve targets in the framework of a safe systems approach;
4. Make particular efforts to develop and implement policies and infrastructure solutions to protect all road users in particular those who are most vulnerable such as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and users of unsafe public transport, as well as children, the elderly and people living with disabilities;
5. Begin to implement safer and more sustainable transportation, including through land-use planning initiatives and by encouraging alternative forms of transportation;
6. Promote harmonization of road safety and vehicle safety regulations and good practices through the implementation of relevant United Nations resolutions and instruments and the series of manuals issued by the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration;
7. Strengthen or maintain enforcement and awareness of existing legislation and where needed improve legislation and vehicle and driver registration systems using appropriate international standards;
8. Encourage organizations to contribute actively to improving work-related road safety through adopting the use of best practices in fleet management;
4
9. Encourage collaborative action by fostering cooperation between relevant entities of public administrations, organizations of the United Nations system, private and public sectors, and with civil society;
10. Improve national data collection and comparability at the international level, including by adopting the standard definition of a road death as any person killed immediately or dying within 30 days as a result of a road traffic crash and standard definitions of injury; and facilitating international cooperation to develop reliable and harmonized data systems;
11. Strengthen the provision of prehospital and hospital trauma care, rehabilitation services and social reintegration through the implementation of appropriate legislation, development of human capacity and improvement of access to health care so as to ensure the timely and effective delivery to those in need;
Invite the United Nations General Assembly to declare the decade 2011–2020 as the “Decade of Action for Road Safety” with a goal to stabilize and then reduce the forecast level of global road deaths by 2020;
Decide to evaluate progress five years following the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety;
Invite the international donor community to provide additional funding in support of global, regional and country road safety, especially in low- and middle-income countries; and
Invite the UN General Assembly to assent to the contents of this declaration.
Moscow, Russian Federation
20 November 2009

Safety on the roads: joining forces to save lives - Multilateral Development Banks say five million deaths, 50 million injuries could be avoided

2009-11-22T21:23:00.000-08:00

Seven Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) today issued a joint statement outlining a broad package of measures that each would implement in order to reduce an anticipated and alarming rise in the number of road fatalities and casualties in developing countries.

The participating MDBs are the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank and the World Bank.

The MDBs said the joint initiatives they will undertake are important steps in a growing program of work they will undertake as international development partners.

The measures to be carried out fall into four broad categories:

* Strengthening road safety management capacity;
* Implementing safety approaches in the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of road infrastructure projects;
* Improving safety performance measures; and
* Mobilizing more and new resources for road safety.

“All MDB’s are committed to taking a leading role to address what is becoming one of the most significant public health development priorities of the early 21st century,” said Jamal Saghir, Director of Energy, Transport, and Water at the World Bank, speaking on behalf of the participating MDBs. “As development professionals, we will work together to bring this growing epidemic on the roads of low and middle-income countries under control over the coming decade. We also have a longer-term vision of eliminating these unnecessary and unacceptable deaths and injuries.”

In their joint statement, the MDBs said they welcomed the upcoming First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety to be held in Moscow on 19 and 20 November, 2009, as it draws attention to a global issue of increasing importance to the organizations. Improving road safety, they said, is a development priority in developing and emerging countries. It calls for scaled-up global, regional, and country responses to bring the growing numbers of road deaths and injuries toll under control.

Over the first 30 years of this century it is estimated that more cars will be produced in the world than during the first hundred years of motorization. As a result, millions of road deaths and injuries must be anticipated, unless sustained measures are taken to prevent them. Updated projections of global mortality and the burden of disease made by the World Health Organization indicate that road traffic injuries are set to be the fourth biggest cause of healthy life years lost in developing and emerging countries by 2030, and from 2015 onto 2030 they will be the biggest cause of healthy life years lost for children aged between 5 and 14, unless new measures are taken to prevent them.

GRSF estimates indicate that reducing road fatalities and injuries in low and middle-income countries over the coming decade would save an estimated 5 million lives and avoid 50 million serious injuries, resulting in a huge social benefit.

In the face of this mounting crisis there has been a concerted global call for action to promote a systematic, multi-sectoral response. There is also the recognition that shared initiatives can accelerate the transfer of road safety knowledge to developing and emerging countries and scale up their road safety investment.

The MDB signatories to the joint statement say they have an important role to play in this process, given their engagement in the development programs of partner countries through policy dialogue, analytical and advisory services, and lending and guarantee products to the public and private sectors. In particular, increased provision of road infrastructure is essential to development success, but its sustainable safety for users must be assured.The Joint Statement of the Multilateral Development Banks and media contact points are attached.

For more information, please visit: Global Road Safety Facility www.worldbank.org/grsf

A Shared Approach to Managing Road Safety

Joint Statement by the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Investment Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank and the World Bank

Global call for action

1. We acknowledge the scale of the public health crisis arising from deaths and injuries on the roads of developing and emerging countries, the recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention , the global call for action from World Health Assembly Resolution WHA57.10 (Road safety and health) and UN General Assembly Resolutions 56/289, 60/5 and 62/244 (Improving global road safety).

Systematic, multisectoral response

2. We recognize that a systematic, multisectoral response is required to address this global crisis including interventions that improve the safety of road infrastructure, vehicles, road user behavior and post-crash services, and we support the principles of the Safe System approach aiming at (i) developing road transport systems prevention, reduction and accommodation of human error; (ii) taking into account social costs and impacts of road trauma in the development and selection of investment program; (iii) establishing shared responsibility for road safety among all stakeholders; (iv) creating effective and comprehensive management and communications structures for road safety; and (v) aligning safety management decision making with broader societal decision making to meet economic, human and environmental goals, and to create an environment that generates demand for safe road transport products and services. We recognize the relevance of this approach to all countries irrespective of their economic or road safety performance. More specifically, we note that a significant and sustained contribution to fatality reduction will come from road infrastructure safety improvements.

Shared approach

3. We also recognize that our respective organizations expect to remain significantly engaged in the provision of road infrastructure in developing and emerging countries over the coming decade, and beyond, and we commit to share our organizational practices and knowledge to support (i) the strengthening of road safety management capacity of our clients; (ii) the implementation of safety approaches in the design, construction, operation and maintenance of road infrastructure projects, particularly to improve safe access and protection for vulnerable road users who represent a significant proportion of the people served by the projects we finance; (iii) the improvement of safety performance measures; and (iv) the mobilization of resources for road safety.

4. To achieve this approach we will share the complementary skills and practices we each develop in our respective operations in the areas of:

(i) Strengthening road safety management capacity

* Help establish country-specific mechanisms for improving road safety management functions and safety practices aiming at achieving the sustainable, effective, and cost-efficient reduction of road casualties.
* Create awareness for safety in order to achieve informed decisions by countries on the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of road infrastructure assets and networks.
* Improve communications, cooperation, and collaboration among global, regional and country institutions in the area of road safety and facilitate the dissemination of up-to-date safety-related information.
* Provide our staff development and training to facilitate the successful implementation of shared procedures, guidelines and related tools.
* Contribute to the training of transportation safety professionals in developing and emerging countries by financing efforts such as the development of road safety education programs, manuals and training materials promoting good practices related to road safety, to facilitate the implementation of improved road safety practices and procedures.

(ii) Implementation of safety approaches in the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of road infrastructure projects

* Develop shared procedures, guidelines and related tools to implement a safety approach to the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of road infrastructure projects.
* Ensure that safety is integrated in all phases of planning, design, construction, appraisal, operation and maintenance of road infrastructure.
* Promote the adoption of good practice, proactive approaches to improve the safety of road infrastructure including the use of road safety audits, road safety inspections, and road safety impact assessments.
* Develop specific approaches to address the safety requirements of vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists), including a special focus on urban areas where a high proportion of trauma occurs.

(iii) Improvement of safety performance measures

* Promote the establishment of sustainable management systems for road crash data collection, entry, verification, storage, retrieving and analysis, including GIS-based applications.
* Promote the use of good practice quantitative and qualitative indicators to measure safety results.
* Promote the development, piloting, and objective validation of innovative safety indicators, such as the safety rating of roads.

(iv) Mobilization of resources for road safety

* Transfer road safety knowledge and experience across and within our organizations, and to our global, regional and country partners.
* Support the mobilization of additional domestic and external resources for road safety.
* Support the mission and goals of the Global Road Safety Facility in its promotion of innovative solutions to road safety issues.
* Establish as needed an expert technical group comprising staff from our respective organizations and international specialists to assist in the development of shared approaches to road safety.
* Identify, and pursue opportunities for scaling up road safety in countries strategies.

Timetable for action

5. We will commence the development and implementation of this shared approach to managing road safety immediately and we will meet in 2010 to assess progress of the implementation of this statement.

Source

Terrorism on the Roads

2009-11-21T01:08:00.000-08:00

As a former NATO secretary-general, I am familiar with the cold calculus of potential body counts applied in assessing threats to national security. But I’m still taken aback by our collective failure to face up to one of the gravest and most preventable security risks facing people across the world — the risk of death and disability on the world’s roads.

This year 1.3 million people will die on the world’s roads. About 40 times this number will be seriously injured. The vast majority of these deaths and injuries — 90 percent of the total — will occur in developing countries. In most of the world’s poorest countries “death by traffic” is a bigger killer than major diseases. Road injuries kill more children aged 5 to 14 in poor countries than malaria or AIDS. And they are the single biggest killer of 15- to 29-year-olds. The threats associated with roads massively outweigh those posed by terrorism. Each day, road accidents cause a loss of life equivalent to 10 jumbo jet crashes.

In Russia, 33,308 people died in road accidents in 2007, or more than 91 per day, according to the World Health Organization’s “Global Status Report on Road Safety.” In addition, 292,206 were injured. Thus, the death rate on Russia’s roads was more than 25 fatalities per 100,000, about double the U.S. rate of 13.9 and five times higher than in Britain, which has 5.4 and one of the best safety records in Europe. The WHO report also found that an extremely high percentage of victims on the roads — 36 percent — were pedestrians.

Had someone shown me the body count numbers when I was at NATO, I would have assumed that I was looking at the impact of a high-intensity civil conflict. I might have anticipated campaigns for humanitarian intervention. Yet for the most part, governments and aid agencies turn a blind eye.

It is easy to understand why road safety does not make headlines. With the international agenda dominated by the global challenges of climate change and recovery from the financial crisis, roads appear of peripheral concern — a subject for a convention of civil engineers maybe, not a world summit. That is precisely the thinking that has brought us to where we are now.

On Thursday, governments from around the world will gather in Moscow for the first-ever global ministerial conference on road safety. They have an opportunity to tackle head-on a humanitarian crisis that is destroying lives on a vast scale, undermining progress in poverty reduction, crippling health systems and holding back economic growth. For millions of vulnerable children, the outcome of the Moscow summit is — quite literally — a matter of life or death.

The future looks bleak. While road deaths are falling in rich countries, they are spiraling in the developing world. Current projections point to fatalities doubling by 2030, with an estimated 2.4 million losing their lives.

There is something deeply disturbing about the international response to road traffic injuries. When lives are threatened by the H1NI flu pandemic, governments issue crisis prevention policies — and rightly so. Yet an epidemic that sends a quarter of a million young people to an early grave each year barely registers on the radar screen of world leaders.

Why the neglect? One of the main fallacies is that road injuries are the collateral damage of development itself — an inevitable consequence of investment in transport infrastructure and the growing demand for vehicles.

This type of thoughtless fatalism costs lives. There are few unknowns with road injuries. The causes and the simple preventative cures are well known. Tens of thousands of children die each year because major highways are routed between their homes, often in informal slums, and schools. Try to imagine sending your 7-year-old off on a daily journey that involves negotiating a six-lane highway. The solution: build protected overpasses and regulate road design to avoid human settlements.

The major killers are easy to identify. Roads that don’t separate pedestrians from vehicles, failure to enforce laws on speeding and drunk driving, and the wearing of seat belts and helmets are recurrent themes. Tried and tested interventions demonstrate what is possible. Rwanda for example, has been more successful than most of its neighbors in tackling the road traffic crisis through stricter enforcement of vehicle standards and speed limits.

Road crashes typically cost developing countries from 1 percent to 3 percent of gross domestic product each year, undermining national prosperity and job creation. The question that finance ministers should ask is not whether road safety is affordable, but whether they can afford not to act.

The Moscow summit could chart a new course by pressing the United Nations to adopt a Decade of Action for Road Safety aiming to halve the projected increase in the forecast level of road fatalities by 2020. The goal could save 5 million lives and prevent 50 million serious injuries.

International development agencies like the World Bank should ensure that road safety assessments become a standard for future funding decisions. More developing country governments should draw up national plans for cutting road deaths supported by a $300 million international action plan, as proposed by the Make Roads Safe campaign.

Above all, the Moscow summit provides an opportunity to rethink the links between transport policy and development. We need to reject the business model that measures a nation’s economic progress in terms of kilometers of roads while turning a blind eye to avoidable human suffering. And we need to put road safety at the heart of the international development agenda.

Former NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson is chairman of the Commission for Global Road Safety.
Source-Moscow times

Road deaths 'costing world $500bn' - 20 Nov 2009

2009-11-20T21:32:00.001-08:00

Road accident related deaths a 'global crisis': UN chief

2009-11-20T21:28:00.000-08:00

United Nations, Nov 21 (PTI) Describing road accident related deaths as a 'global crisis', the UN chief has said more needed to be done to tackle traffic deaths in which more than a million people die every year world-wide.

"Each year, more than one million people are killed in traffic accidents ? more than deaths from malaria or diabetes.

This conference is long overdue," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a message at the First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in Moscow.

The UN chief said the vast majority of accidents are in low and middle-income countries. In addition to deaths, some 50 million people are severely injured, costing governments one to three per cent of their gross national products.

"Behind these staggering statistics lie the enormous suffering and grief that road accidents inflict on families and communities," he said.

"Our lives have come to depend on mobility.

Source

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV Speech at First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety

2009-11-20T03:56:00.000-08:00

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues,

I want to welcome you all to Moscow and the first international conference on road safety.

I just asked our Interior Minister how many countries are represented here. 150 countries is a very impressive number. I would like to cordially thank you all for coming to Russia and taking part in this very important event. And I am very pleased that our initiative to hold it has received such enthusiastic response.

I think much has already been said. But there are still some things that I consider important and want to repeat. Until recently, traffic safety was seen by some countries as a purely internal matter, a local problem. Meanwhile, the figures, which I’m sure have already been cited in this room, show that it is one of the main problems of international development, the one which requires common strategies and joint action.

Today, when I looked through the materials prepared for our forum, our conference, I once again realized for myself that the numbers are simply amazing – depressing if you prefer. Despite the fact that they probably have already been cited today I cannot but repeat them: more than 3,500 people are killed every day in road accidents. Different sources state that every year more than a million people (of which one in five are children) are killed throughout the world. In other words, every year we lose one big city, a metropolis. More than 50 million people are injured and crippled. If we do nothing to reverse this trend, then according to at least these estimates, to the data we have, by 2020 road accidents will become the third most serious threat to human health, along with circulatory system diseases and certain other problems.

It is clear that there is no way one can measure the price of human suffering, but we can measure the damage caused to national economies. This has been calculated at a figure of more than 500 billion US dollars, of which developing economies incur approximately 100 billion US dollars. This is a huge amount of money which naturally could be spent for entirely different purposes, for development, for example.

The main cause of road accidents is traffic violations, that is what traditionally happens on the roads in various countries – speeding, drunk driving, simply adopting a disrespectful attitude towards others, and a lack of driving culture. Unfortunately, everything I just referred to exists in our country. We need to create rules at the level of national legislation, rules that would give definite, absolutely clear signals to drivers in all countries. For example, such rules would state that a driver deprived of the right to drive in one country is not able to drive in another one, at least without any prior re-certification.

Along with stepping up repressive measures and increasing fines and penalties, we need to improve training for drivers and pedestrians, provide accident victims with timely quality medical care and, of course, pay special attention to the quality of roads and upgrading road infrastructure.

A special topic for our country, as for many countries (though this is in some way part of a national mentality), is the behaviour of drivers or driving culture. On the other hand, human error must be compensated by the maximum possible security of the vehicles. Recently much has been done in this field and, of course, today's vehicles are significantly different from the one we had of 20, 30 or more than 50 years ago. But it is important to continue to monitor the running order of vehicles and automakers must make greater use of technological innovations. Of course, there is always a choice to be made between the cost of new vehicles and using innovative technology. But since we are talking about security, then I believe this is still more important, even if compared to such indicator as price.

We are convinced that we need to develop immediate and joint systemic measures to better ensure road safety. We must coordinate international efforts in this area. To speak frankly, we can coordinate them, as we agreed today, just as the international community is currently working together to overcome the global financial crisis. The problem we are talking about, the figures we are citing, are no less dramatic for our planet than the consequences of global recession, or even issues of food security. Russia supports the UN initiative to declare the coming decade, from 2011 to 2020, that of action to ensure road safety.

We must intensify the efforts of international financial organisations in this field (or at least give signals as to how such work should proceed), and find ways to support global, regional and national programmes to promote road safety, especially for low- and middle-income countries.

Colleagues, I think that my friends have already told you about how things stand in Russia. In Russia we have approved a National Strategy to improve road safety. Since 2006 we have had a federal target programme designed to reduce the number of car accident victims by half compared to 2004. Nevertheless, the situation in this area is very bad. Last year nearly 30,000 people were killed on Russian roads. Despite the many measures we have taken, things have not improved as much as we would like. Accordingly, after holding a meeting [on August 6, 2009] – and I fully admit that it was held as the result of a succession of very serious incidents – on August 31 I gave orders to the Government Cabinet, the ministries and the various departments. I think that those present here would be interested to know what has been done and, incidentally, what hasn’t been done, and for that I am going to call on the Ministry of the Interior, our State Traffic Safety Inspectorate and other departments.

What have we agreed on? First, there is a systemic change, one that has not yet been implemented but is very important: by March 1 we need to draft regulations for road safety. Unfortunately, I have to openly admit that we do not yet have such regulations, and I am sure that many countries represented here do not have them either, but they are very important. This is because we need to understand how to build roads and how to make them safe. Ultimately, I am convinced that such regulations should be standardized in some sort of global way.

We have a special programme for training drivers, and we have decided to intensify it, to prepare proposals that will enable us to track these processes more actively, and to introduce modern techniques to ensure that driving tests are more accurate. An instruction has been issued to organise a telephone hotline to the traffic police. As far as I know, this has already been implemented. Has it? It is also a very important measure. On the one hand, it can prove useful for any kind of incident, but on the other hand it is an anti-corruption measure, because here too there have been problems.

For employers, we must prepare specific regulations, as well as for those who carry freight, passengers and cargo. Moreover, these regulations are interdepartmental. As far as I know, they have not been prepared, or rather not yet approved by joint order. I propose to do this soon.

There is another issue. A purely human one and, I think an important one. We must create a special programme to ensure that our car owners – those behind the wheel – can provide basic first aid. This amounts to humanitarian help. Every person who witnesses an accident must have basic skills to help those who were affected. I understand that we are working on a corresponding programme in this field as well.

Why did I cite all these measures which seem like local, sort of purely Russian? I am sure that there is much to work on within our international cooperation. I am also sure that similar problems, at least some of them, exist in a number of countries represented here. Therefore, exchanging experiences in this regard is extremely important.

I believe that the recommendations your Conference will work out must take into account Russia's experience (both positive and negative) and international experience, the experience of those countries represented in this room.

I would sincerely like to wish the First Ministerial Conference on Road Safety success. I hope that your work will represent a new stage in cooperation on these very complex issues, bring our positions closer, make them clearer, and make our cooperation more productive. I wish you success in your work.
Orginal source

Highway To Hell(source-Times of India)

2009-11-20T02:53:00.000-08:00

Sometimes in life you get hit by a moment of empathy. I had one a few weeks ago. It happened while i was standing by the six-lane super-highway that circles Delhi. As the trucks, four-by-fours and cars went speeding by, i noticed a group of women with children strapped to their backs, facing up to the traffic as they struggled to cross the road. One question hit me: “How would i like to be in their shoes?”
Ministers attending the world’s first ever UN ministerial summit on road safety in Moscow today should be asking themselves the same question. They have a chance to tackle head-on a hidden pandemic that is killing and maiming vulnerable people in the world’s poorest countries on a vast scale. It is also undermining efforts to reduce poverty, draining health systems of resources, and holding back economic growth.
Few people are aware of the carnage that takes place on the world’s roads. Around 1.3 million people die each year as a result of road crashes. Probably 40 times that number suffer serious injury. Over 90 per cent of road deaths and injuries happen in developing countries. India has the highest death toll in the world at over 1,00,000 annually. For people aged 5-25, cars pose a bigger threat to life than killer diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis – and the threat is growing.
It’s generally people too poor to own a vehicle who face the greatest risk of getting hit by one. And the loss of a breadwinner and the costs of health treatment can mean a oneway ticket to extreme poverty. The human costs of this pandemic are beyond estimation. You can’t put a price on grief, trauma and the loss of a loved one. But there’s an economic cost, which also impacts severely. Road traffic injuries typically cost countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia the equivalent of 1-3 per cent of GDP a year.
Many health ministers are already aware of the damage inflicted by road traffic injuries. I have visited trauma wards in hospitals in India where over half of the beds are occupied by road injury victims. Treating these victims is diverting finance and skilled medical care from other priority areas.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy is the political indifference that perpetuates the carnage. We could do so much to prevent road deaths at such low cost – yet we do so little.
When it comes to avoiding road injuries
it’s all so desperately simple. Roads can be designed for pedestrian safety, by separating cars, trucks and buses from people. Governments can enforce laws that reduce speed, ensure the wearing of helmets and seat belts, clamp down on drunken driving, and regulate road users. These are affordable measures that are tried, tested but widely ignored.
When i met Delhi’s city leaders recently they seemed committed to taking action, yet face severe challenges. This is a city with an unregulated bus company that kills over 100 people a year with monotonous regularity, in which women and children sit on the back of motorcycles with no helmets, and in which disregard for basic traffic rules is the norm. Is it really beyond a country that is a world leader in economic growth and can put a satellite into orbit, to enforce basic traffic laws?
It’s not just developing country governments that need to act more decisively. Aid donors like the World Bank are investing huge sums on road networks – and almost nothing on road safety. It goes without saying that roads are vital for development. But in their neglect, these policies are killing people. Surely donors have to think more about the security of the people they are supposed to be helping.
Scratch the surface, and government planners are measuring success in kilometres of metalled roads. This approach combines indefensible ethics with illiterate economics. The simple truth is that our current approach is unsustainable and unaffordable.
There is an alternative path – and it starts in Moscow. The Make Roads Safe campaign is calling on the ministerial conference to prepare the ground for a UN Decade of Action on road safety. Through global collaboration we could halve the projected increase in traffic-related death and injury by 2020, saving five million lives and preventing 50 million injuries. As part of the package, we are calling on aid donors to spend $300 million on a plan to get national road safety initiatives moving.
Of course, there are many people in governments across the world who will see the Moscow summit as a diversion from the big ticket issues of economic growth, security and climate change. For them, i have just one plea. Try a little empathy. Next time your motorcade is heading along the metalled highway to the airport, take a look at the kids braving the high-speed traffic en route to school – and try imagining that they are your kids.
The writer is an actress and global ambassador for the Make Roads Safe campaign.

Killer roads(Cover Story by India Today)

2009-11-17T21:45:00.000-08:00

It is, outside conflict zones, the most dangerous place on earth, a strip of lawless asphalt where an angry army of humans and a bewildering variety of vehicular traffic battle for space and the right of way.

Pedestrians
Pedestrians and cyclists form a major chunk of casualties.
It is, quite literally, a death trap. India's killer roads account for more deaths than any other single cause, from terrorism to natural disasters. Every hour, 13 people die due to road accidents, the highest in the world. Every 10th person who dies in road accidents is an Indian.

Every day, about 250 people die in road accidents, or an astonishing 1,14,590 each year. That's a horrific number and even more horrific considering that the majority of fatalities are the sole earning members of their families: 85 per cent are male and 70 per cent are in the working age group of 30 to 59 years.

It is estimated that road accidents cause an estimated loss of 1 per cent of the country's gross domestic product. According to the World Bank, developing countries lose approximately $100 billion every year due to road crashes, which is twice the amount of all development aid provided by donors to developing countries.

Even scarier is the fact that road fatalities in India have been rising at the rate of 8 per cent a year and, paradoxically, have only increased even as massive amounts of money have been pumped into improving roads and adding new highways, flyovers and expressways.

The BMW trial

At 4.50 a.m., on January 10, 1999, an inebriated Sanjeev Nanda, grandson of former Indian Navy chief Admiral S.M. Nanda, rammed his new BMW at high speed into a police checkpoint on Lodhi Road, killing six people-half of them policemen-while returning from a late night party with friends Manik Kapoor and Siddharth Gupta. The only survivor of the accident, Manoj, turned hostile and the other eyewitness, Sunil Kulkarni, was declared unreliable by the prosecution but made to depose. Criminal lawers R.K. Anand and I.U. Khan were caught on camera offering money to Kulkarni. Having served his sentence, Nanda is a free man now.
In India, it's a tragic conundrum; the better the road, the faster the traffic will go, but with lax enforcement, few rules and safety factors, it only leads to more deaths. One study showed that a 10 per cent increase in speed leads to a 30 per cent increase in road accident fatalities.

Here's another shocking statistic: a leading cause of road deaths is drunk drivers but only between 2 and 8 per cent of cases involving drunken driving actually make it to court. Other factors that lead to the high incidence of road accidents: poor traffic management, bad roads, total lack of observance of traffic rules, no legal deterrents, corrupt traffic police, jaywalking pedestrians and a deadly mix of slow and fast-moving traffic, including the fact that a sizable number of fatalities due to road accidents is avoidable for want of better road safety management and availability of prompt medical help.

In fact, the Global Status Report on Road Safety (GSRRS) by the World Health Organization says it is the low level of enforcement of simple road safety measures in India, like prohibition and monitoring of drunken driving, wearing of seat belts and child restraints, and checks on speeding, that leads to a majority of deaths.

A
A variety of road users, including non-motorised vehicles and cattle, provide a breeding ground for mishaps.
According to a study by a leading hospital in Delhi, merely enforcing sobriety checks and carrying out random breath-testing can bring down alcohol-related crashes by 20 per cent. Drunken driving accounts for 29 per cent of deaths involving motorised two-wheelers. Similarly, wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of death by 40 per cent, while wearing seat belts can reduce the fatality by 50 per cent for front seat passengers. The tragedy is that these basic road safety measures are either not followed or are blatantly violated in India.

Says Kiran Bedi, who was named 'Crane Bedi' for her attempts to curb traffic violations while serving as traffic commissioner in Delhi: "Road safety can only come if all the three partners related to roads are dealt with together-the enforcers or the traffic police, users and those who are living on the roads. But even today traffic is the most ignored department in the police."

That is also reflected in the plethora of agencies responsible for road construction, safety and traffic management of highways. Out of the existing 70,548 km of national highways, 42,469 km is with state Public Works Departments, 19,596 km with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), 3,992 km with the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), and 4,491 km is yet to be entrusted to any agency.

Inmany cases, under the increasingly popular Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) scheme, stretches of expressways and flyovers are run by private construction companies which tend to cut corners by not sticking to original plans of adequate thoroughways for pedestrians in the form of overbridges or underpasses. Indeed, "vulnerable road users" (pedestrians, cyclists and motorised two-wheeler riders) account for 84 per cent of deaths in cities and 67 per cent on highways.

Salman's story

On September 29, 2002, Salman Khan's Land Cruiser crashed at high speed into the American Express Bakery, Bandra, killing one person and injuring four pavement dwellers. Khan was inebriated at the time of the accident and driving fast according to Ravindra Patil, Khan's bodyguard and prime witness, who was in the car. However, in a predictable twist, Khan claimed the driver was at the wheel and he was a passenger. Four years later, a local court discharged five witnesses after the prosecution said it did not wish to examine them while the other key witnesses injured in the accident turned hostile. The case is pending.
The World Bank has expressed concern over the tardy progress of road safety measures on some of the on-going highway projects in India, saying that no new rules have been framed for safety management despite contracts which provide for safety management, constant monitoring and rating the contractors on these important parameters at worksites.

The GSRRS report emphasises the need for a multi-pronged approach involving psychologists, engineers, doctors, police, sociologists and vehicle experts to deal with road accident deaths as a public health issue. The problem is that road traffic in India essentially remains a civil engineering issue. Says S. Gangopadhyay, director of Central Road Research Institute (CRRI): "As many as 80 per cent of the fatalities on roads involve pedestrians because they are given the least priority."

The GSRRS report says: "In many countries (read India) roads are planned and built to allow motor vehicles to travel faster while insufficient thought is given to the needs of pedestrians and cyclists."

The homeless who sleep on the road, and form a vulnerable group, are also classified as pedestrians. The 2001 Census estimates that 7,78,599 urban homeless live on roads. Overspeeding was found to be the single biggest reason for pedestrian deaths and injuries.

The high profile cases involving Sanjeev Nanda and Salman Khan hitting pedestrians or running over people sleeping on the pavement are not isolated instances. Such cases account for 1,000 pedestrian deaths every year.

In Indian cities, the outer areas are generally not provided with subways, pedestrian bridges, paved pavements and zebra crossings. It is here that enforcement of traffic rules is relatively slack, according to the study carried out by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore.

Behind the bloodbath

* High incidence of drunk driving and increasing incidents of road rage
* Penalties for rash and negligent driving not strict enough to act as a major deterrent
* First-aid and medical support apparatus for accident victims virtually absent. Experts say fatality rates can be drastically reduced if victims get proper treatment in time.
* Poor maintenance and overloading of vehicles along with high congestion on highways. Expressways have increased average speed without introducing safety measures.
* Most highways and expressways do not have overbridges or subways
* Poor road design as road construction industry is highly unorganised; there is no record of the number of contractors, their background or capabilities
* Homeless people who sleep and live on pavements are vulnerable, especially at night due to poor lighting and rash driving

The biggest killer, however, can be seen when you stand at any point overlooking a major thoroughfare and key traffic points in any big city. What you will see and hear is a ear-splitting cacophony of blaring horns and human voices screaming curses as both slow and fast-moving traffic jostle for space on roads that lack segregation.

Pedestrians, cyclists, bullock carts, tractors and two-wheelers compete with cars, trucks and buses, all driving at varying speeds. Many vehicles are poorly maintained-gridlock is one result, accidents another.
Another issue is that while expressways and flyways are meant to allow traffic to move faster, they have no provision for slow-moving traffic like overloaded trucks, tempos and even tractors. The GSRRS report makes a special mention of the first project in India that aims to segregate traffic in Delhi.

The first phase of the much-maligned Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor has been operational for about a year now and no motorcycle or bicycle fatality has been reported so far along this stretch. While the jury is still out, accidents on expressways because of mixed traffic continue to increase. In a bizarre accident on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, seven people, including three policemen, were killed while trying to rescue another accident victim after an overloaded tractor trolley overturned when one of its wheels came off.

Ultimately, however, it is the total lack of traffic sense, reckless drivers and poor driving skills that cause most road deaths. Gangopadhyay says that as many as 80 per cent of road accidents are caused by the faulty behaviour of road users.

Poor
Poor public transport is a major cause of accidents
"There are no rules as long as we fail to provide road users with relevant information through proper signages, traffic lights, zebra crossings and training people to drive properly. How would you enforce lane discipline if you do not have lanes marked on the road?" he asks. He adds that faulty bus stand designs and improper locations contribute in a major way to road accidents.

Not surprisingly, the cities that have the most road accident deaths (see box) are also the ones that rank high on road rage cases, suggesting a connection between urban stress and pressures and poor traffic management. "Many people drive with intense rage. They have no fear of the consequences of driving dangerously," says Rajat Mitra, a criminal psychologist who heads the Swanchetan Society for Mental Health.

The lack of fear is directly linked to weak laws, lack of deterrents and weaker implementation. In India, it is common to see motorcycles being driven at high speed by riders without helmets. In most countries, this is a major crime. More than one serious driving offence can lead to the cancellation of the licence but in India, no such deterrent exists.

Nanda was jailed for drunken driving because his case became a media sensation and he came from a high profile family. In most cases, the matter gets sorted out with the payment of money to the victims, who are mostly poor. This informal and out-of-court settlement is brokered with the help of policemen who also earn a cut.

While drunken driving and dangerous driving remain the only cognizable offences under the Motor Vehicle Act of 1988, the level of conviction is abysmally low. That is something the Supreme Court knows all too well.

In March, after a 16-year-old boy died due to a bus-autorickshaw collision, the trial court imposed a sentence of one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000. However, the Karnataka High Court allowed the driver's appeal by increasing the fine amount in lieu of doing away with the jail term.

Overload factor

On May 29, 2009, seven people, including three policemen, died and 11 others were critically injured when a truck ran over them on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway. The mishap happened when an overloaded tractor trolley overturned and policemen trying to rescue a man stuck in the trolley were hit by the speeding vehicle. Similarly, in March 2009, a 19-year-old student, Rahul Anand, died trying to save a pedestrian on the Gurgaon Expressway, making him one of the 160 people killed on this road.
The apex court bench had to intervene and dismissed the high court order, saying: "Any liberal attitude by imposing meagre sentences or taking too sympathetic a viewâ€¦ is counterproductive in the long run and against the social interest which needs to be strengthened by a string of deterrence in-built in the sentencing system."

Adding fuel to the fire is a lax and corrupt licensing system that sends a clear message: you can drive a car without knowing traffic rules. In reality, driving licences are like a licence to kill. In many states, notably Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, there is no need to even go to the licensing authority to get a licence made, thanks to touts.

Raids by Delhi's Anti-Corruption Branch have exposed the corruption in the system which allows people to get licences without taking the mandatory driving test. Many socalled driving schools function more as middlemen who get licences without any mandatory checks

Public transport accounts for a major portion of road deaths, and sleep deprivation and abnormal sleep patterns have emerged as a major problem. A recent study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) found that 60 per cent of accidents were due to insufficient sleep or abnormal sleeping habits of professional drivers.

Truck and long distance bus drivers are the prime culprits. In fact, the major death traps in India, according to statistics, are the Delhi-Jaipur expressway (where Michelle Vadra, the sister-inlaw of Priyanka Gandhi, was killed in 2001), the Gurgaon Expressway, the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway in Gujarat, and the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor.

There is also another killer: the lack of speedy medical help and transfer to a hospital. One tragic example is that of 19-year-old hotel management student Rahul Anand who rammed his car into a parked water tanker on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway trying to avoid a pedestrian who was running across the road in March this year. No help arrived for the next 45 minutes by which time it was too late.

Safer streets

* Speed checks help as pedestrians have a 90 per cent chance of surviving a car accident when hit at speeds below 45 kmph
* Random breath testing can reduce alcohol-related crashes by up to 20 per cent
* Wearing a helmet correctly can reduce the risk of death by 40 per cent and the risk of severe injuries by 70 per cent
* Wearing seat belts reduces the risk of fatality among front seat passengers by almost 40-50 per cent, and among back seat passengers by 25-75 per cent
* The mandatory use of child restraints can reduce child deaths by 35 per cent

Source: GSRRS

Says his distraught father K.S. Anand: "Had they provided for a safe passage to pedestrians and emergency ambulance services my son would have been alive." He has sued the NHAI and the expressway operator.

Adds M.C Misra, chief of the Trauma Centre at AIIMS: "Fatality figures can be reduced substantially if victims are given correct first-aid and rushed to the hospital as soon as possible." He mentions road accident victims who have been brought to the trauma centre nine hours after the accident. Even the capital has only 35 ambulances earmarked for road accidents.

There is also the fact that most Indians are reluctant to get involved in a road accident case either because it make them a witness in a police case or because the mental makeup is not wired to helping strangers.

Says Subroto Roy, founder of Lifeline, an ambulance service: "While prevention of accidents is of paramount importance, the safety of the victim after an accident has occurred is equally important but often a neglected part of motor vehicle issues. It has never been given the importance of being a multi-stakeholder activity in India."

Dead wrong

In December last year, nine people were crushed inside the Qualis when a truck coming from the opposite direction and on the wrong side of the road rammed into them at the Panvel-Thane junction of Navi Mumbai. The crushed vehicle had to be cut to extricate the bodies. The driver fled the scene before the police arrived. Reckless driving and high fatigue levels of truck drivers have made the Mumbai-Pune Expressway a death trap during certain hours. During the wee hours trucks move in the wrong lanes and run into unsuspecting vehicles. In May last year, 14 people of a marriage party were killed at 4.30 a.m. when they collided with a tanker which had slowed down near Panvel.

He adds: "Moreover, road safety, like any other safety issue, is not a priority in India. We do not have structured good Samaritan laws that bind the psyche of Indians to intervene in a road traffic accident. Worse still, we are very apathetic to a fellow road user's pain."

The fact is that there are too many vehicles on our roads which are built without any foresight or care for future projection of traffic volumes. The Indian capital alone adds nearly 1,000 cars every day to the existing traffic.

Vehicular traffic in India is growing at the rate of 10 per cent per year and still the government and local agencies responsible for road safety and traffic management have been dangerously tardy in their response.

The National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board recommended by the Sundar Committee way back in 2004 was only created last week and will take many more weeks, if not years, to get down to business.

The Central Government's position has been that the safety of road users is primarily the responsibility of the concerned state governments, which, being resource-hungry, treat road safety as a low priority area.

A conference-Road Safety Investments in India-organised last year by the Institute of Road Traffic Education and the Commission for Global Road Safety made specific recommendations about the political prioritisation of road safety in India, implementation of a single road safety administration, investment of 10 per cent of the road construction and maintenance budgets for road safety management.

The conference also called for the creation of road safety awareness at all levels, development of tools and systems for driver training and stricter licensing process, updating of road design and traffic engineering standards, and the development of new standards and implementation of scientific traffic management and road safety audits.

It's a tall order but all these are issues that need to be urgently addressed if India wants to have any chance of taming its killer roads.

Source

Road Safety Board Bill likely in winter session

2009-11-14T02:23:00.000-08:00

The Transport Ministry will soon going to approach the Cabinet for setting up the Road Safety Traffic Management Board and a Bill for this purpose is likely to be tabled in the winter session of Parliament.

"We have prepared the draft Cabinet note for creating the Board (Road Safety Traffic Management Board)... We will take it to the Cabinet very soon and it is likely to be tabled in Parliament this winter session," a senior Transport Ministry official told PTI.

The Transport Ministry had proposed setting up of a board for both the Centre and the states earlier this year. However, the Law Ministry had struck down the proposal on the grounds that the Centre did not have the authority to set up such a Board for the states.

"Finally we had to agree to it (Law Ministry) and the Board will only be created for the Centre initially," the official added.

Later, if the states find the idea useful, they can replicate such a body, he added.

Once the Board comes up, the recently constituted Committee on Road Safety and Traffic Management would be dissolved.

The Transport Ministry formed the 14-member Committee last month to lay the foundation for setting up the Board.

Source

National Road Safety Policy(III rd Part)

2009-11-13T23:18:00.000-08:00

(IX)Emergency Medical Services for Road Accidents

The Government will strive to ensure that all persons involved in road accidents benefit from speedy and effective trauma care and management.The essential functions of such a service would include the provision of rescue operation and administration of first aid at the site of an accident and the transport of the victim from accident site to nearby hospital.Hospitals alongside the National Highways and State Highways would be adequately equipped to provide for trauma care and rehabilitation.

(X)HRD $ Research for Road Safety

The Government will encourage increased activity in programmes of road safety research by identifying priority areas,funding research in those areas adequately and establishing centers of excellence in research and academic institutions.The Government will facilitate dissemination of the result of research and identified examples of good practices through publication,training,conferences,workshops and websites.

(XI)Strengthening Enabling Legal,Institutional and Financial Environment for Road Safety

The Government will take appropriate measures to ensure that the required legal,institutional and financial environment for road safety are further strengthened and a mechanism for effective coordination of various stake holders is put in place.The reforms in thses areas would provide for the active and extensive participation of the community at large,of the private sector,academia and NGOs.

(III)Implementation Strategy

The Government has decided to establish a dedicated agency viz. a National Road Safety Board to oversee the issues related to road safety and evolve effective strategies for implementation of the Road Safety activities Through the allocation of a certain percentage of the cess on gasoline and diesel.

Source

National Road Safety Policy(II nd Part)

2009-11-13T22:52:00.000-08:00

(iv) Safer Vehicles

The Government will take steps to ensure that safety features are built in at the stage of design,manufacture,usage,operation and maintenance of both motorized and non-motorized vehicles in line with international standards and practices in order to minimize adverse safety and environmental effects of vehicle operation on road users(including pedestrians and bicyclists) and infrastructure.

(V)Safer Drivers

The Government will strengthen the system of driver licensing and training to improve the competence and capability of drivers.

(VI)Safety of Vulnerable Road Users

The design and construction of all road facilities(rural and urban)will take into account the needs of non-motorized transport and the vulnerable and physically challenged in an appropriate manner.
The government will seek to disseminate'best practices'in this regard to town planners,architects,and highway and traffic engineers.

(VII)Road Traffic Safety Education and Training

Road Safety knowledge and awareness will be created amongst the population through education,training and publicity campaigns.Road safety education will also focus on school children and college going students,while road safety publicity campaigns will be used to propagate good road safety practices among the community.The Government will encourage all professionals associated with road design,road construction,road network management,traffic mangement and law enforcement to attain adequate knowledge of road safety issues.

(VIII)Enforcement of Safety Laws

The Government will take appropriate measures to assist various state and other governments to strengthen and improve the quality of enforcement in order to ensure effective and uniform implementation of Safety laws.The Government will actively encourage the establishment and strengthening of highway Patrolling on National and State Highways in cooperation with State Governments and Union Territories as appropriate.

Source

National Road Safety Policy(I st Part)

2009-11-13T21:52:00.001-08:00

I. Preamble

1.The Government of India is deeply concerned about the growth in the number of road accidents,injuries and fatalities in recent years.It recognizes that road accidents have now become a major public health issue,and the victims are mainly the poor and vulnerable road users.

2. The Government of India further recognizes that as road accidents involve roads,motor vehicles as also the human beings,road safety needs to be addressed on a holistic basis.It also recognizes that regardless of jurisdictions,the Central and State Governments have a joint responsibility in reducing the incidence of road accidents,injuries and fatalities.

3.In the light of this,the Government of India,through this National Road Safety Policy,states its commitment to bring about a significant reduction in mortality and morbidity resulting from road accidents

II. Policy Statements-

In order to achieve a significant improvement in road safety,the Government of India is committed to:
(i)Raise Awareness about Road Safety Issues

The Government would increase its efforts to promote awareness about the various aspects of road safety,the social and economic implications of road accidents and what needs to be done to curb the rising menace of road accidents.This would enable and empower the different stakeholders to play a meaningful role in promoting road safety.

(ii) Establish a Road Safety Information Database

The Government will provide assistance to local bodoies,Union Territories and States to improve the quality of crash investigation and of data collection,transmission and analysis.A National Road Safety Information will be established for providing continuity and policy guidelines to this activity.

(iii)Ensure Safer Road Infrastructure

The Government will take measures to review measures to review standards pertaining to safety in the design of rural and urban roads and brings them in consonance with international best practices keeping in view Indian traffic conditions.Continuing application of Intelligent Transport Systems(ITS) to establish a safe and efficient transport system will be encouraged.

Source

2009-11-13T01:04:00.001-08:00

2009-11-13T01:03:00.001-08:00

2009-11-13T01:02:00.001-08:00

2009-11-13T01:01:00.001-08:00

Road Safety Guidelines for Bus and Truck Drivers

2009-11-13T00:43:00.001-08:00

Buses and Trucks fall under the category of heavy vehicle. They should be driven on the extreme left, speed governors are mandatory for them and the maximum speed limit for buses and trucks is 40 KMPH. Buses and trucks can never overtake any other vehicle. Bus drivers should drive their buses along the bus lane and should stop the buses inside the bus box that is drawn near the bus stops. Other buses that are coming behind and are destined to stop at this bus stop should stop behind the first bus in a line and wait for their turn. Under no circumstances can the latter bus stand parallel to the former bus or overtake it.

Guidelines for Bus and Truck Drivers regarding towing and loading :

1. You must not tow more than your license permits you to.
2. You must not overload your vehicle or trailer. You should not tow a weight greater than that recommended by the manufacturer of your vehicle.
3. You must secure your load and it must not stick out dangerously.
4. You should properly distribute the weight in your caravan or trailer with heavy items mainly over the axle(s) and ensure a downward load on the tow ball. This should avoid the possibility of swerving or snaking and going out of control. If this does happen, ease off the accelerator and reduce speed gently to regain control.

Source

Road safety Guidelines for Car drivers

2009-11-12T22:51:00.001-08:00

# Always carry your driving license and important documents such as your vehicle registration certificate, insurance certificate, road tax and P.U.C certificate with you while driving.
# Don't Drink while Driving.
# Don't Drive under the influence of drugs.
# Obey all traffic signals, lights and signs.
# Use the indicator or hand signals when changing lanes.
# Adhere to permitted speed limits.
# Don't use your cell phone while driving. If you must, move to the left, halt and then make the call.
# Irrespective of right of way, stay alert and be considerate to pedestrians especially senior citizens, handicapped, ladies and children.
# Do not overload your vehicles - be it luggage or passengers.
# Do not use tinted glasses, lenses or visors or anything that restricts vision at night or in poor visibility conditions.
# Do not drink and drive as it adversely affects your judgement and abilities.
# Wear seat belts.
# Always drive using the correct gear.
# Avoid sudden braking and harsh acceleration.
# Never use the clutch as footrest while driving.
# Do not overload your vehicle or trailer. Never tow greater weight than recommended by the manufacturer of your vehicle.
# Please ensure that all children under 14 years of age wear seat belts or sit in an approved child restraint.
# Driving in fatigue enhances the probability of an accident. To minimise this risk you must follow these rules:

1. Make sure you are fit to drive. Do not undertake a long journey (longer than an hour) if you feel tired.
2. Avoid undertaking long journeys between midnight and early morning hours, when natural alertness is at its worst.
3. Plan your journey in breaks. A minimum break of at least 15 minutes after every two hours of driving is recommended.
4. If you feel sleepy, stop at a safe place. Do not stop on the hard shoulder of a motorway
5. The most effective ways to counter sleepiness are to take a short nap (up to 15 minutes) or drink, for example, two cups of strong coffee. Fresh air, exercise or turning up the radio may help for a short time, but are not as effective.

# Children in cars. Drivers who are carrying children in cars should ensure that :

1. Children do not sit behind the rear seats in an estate car or hatchback, unless a special child seat has been fitted.
2. The child safety door locks, where fitted, are used when children are in the car.
3. Children are kept under control.
4. A rear-facing baby seat is never fitted into a seat protected by an AIRBAG.

Source

Road safety Guidelines for Motorcyclists

2009-11-12T22:50:00.000-08:00

We can avoid accidents by following guidelines:

1. While driving always carry your driving license and important documents such as your vehicle registration certificate, insurance certificate, road tax and P.U.C certificate
2. MUST NOT carry more than one pillion rider and he/she MUST sit astride the machine on a proper seat and should keep both feet on the footrests.
3. Make yourself as visible as possible from the sides as well as the front and rear. You could wear a white or brightly coloured helmet. Wear fluorescent clothing or strips. Dipped headlights, even in good daylight, may also make you more conspicuous.
4. You should be aware of what is behind and in the sides before maneuvering. Look behind you; use mirrors if they are fitted.
5. Wear reflective clothing or strips to improve your chances of being seen in the dark.
6. Never Drink while driving
7. Follow the traffic signals, lights and signs
8. Avoid using the cell phone when driving. If urgent move to left, stop and then take the call
9. Do not ride at high speeds. You may lose control and your life in the bargain
10. Always use a helmet
11. Do not ride or wheel your vehicle on to the footpath
12. Use your lights when riding at night
13. Understand the signals given by other road users and use the same when riding
14. Never stop abruptly in traffic. Move to the left and slow down
15. When passing a stationery vehicle allow sufficient clearance for the car doors which may open suddenly
16. Do not try and weave your way through stationery or slow moving traffic. It may cause accidents
17. Slow down at zebra crossing and if needs be stop
18. Always ride with both hands on the handlebar except when signaling
19. Don't sit children on fuel tanks or stand them in front of the rider
20. Avoid using brakes at turns. If needed, ensure both brakes are applied gently
21. MUST wear a protective helmet. Helmets MUST comply with the Regulations and they MUST be fastened securely.

Facts about Helmet : Delhi Traffic Police, New Delhi (India) – Guidelines for Motorcyclists

1. It should not obstruct vision.
2. It should not impair with hearing.
3. It should be light weight.
4. It should not cause fatigue which causes crashes.
5. It should not cause skin diseases.
6. It should not increase the probability of neck injuries.

Kinds of helmets to be used :

It should have a thick padding of thermocole- at least 20 mm- which must extend to the sides of the head. A full face helmet is safer by all means.

Components of the helmet and their roles :
The Shell : The shell of a helmet is an injection molded thermoplastic or a pressure molded thermoset that is reinforced with glass fibers or made of fiber glass.

1. It absorbs energy in an impact:- The shell bends when the helmet is impacted and the underlying foam deforms. At moderate speeds the shell can take one-third of the impact energy.
2. It distributes local forces from an impact:- Rigid objects like stone or a projecting beam can cause a skull fracture at low forces, the shell acts to distribute the force of such impact eliminating the risk of penetration.
3. It allows sliding on road surfaces:- The shell being rigid and having a convex shape allows the helmet to slide along a road surface without there being an excessive force.
4. It protects the face and temples:- Full-face helmet is beneficial in protecting the face and jaw. The chin bar of such helmets contain rigid foam to absorb energy for direct blows on the chin, prevent facial bone fractures and prevent the lower part of the forehead and temple being struck.

The foam liner : This is a molding of polystyrene beads or polyurethane foam. It provides a stopping distance for the head. The foam can compress by 90% during an impact, although it recovers partially afterwards. But this helps increase the stopping distance thus reducing the peak deceleration of the head. It also protects as much as possible of the head.
Proper strapping system : It is essential to wear a well-fitting helmet for the effective working of chinstrap system. To test if the helmet fits your head properly, tightly fasten the chinstrap and then pull helmet off forward by gripping the rear and then pulling. The strap must be threaded correctly so that the buckle locks the strap when it is pulled from the chin side. The strap must be pulled as tight as is bearable under the chin.

Source

Road Safety Guidelines for Bus Commuters

2009-11-12T22:47:00.000-08:00

Bus commuters should never board or deboard a moving bus. Maintaining a queue while boarding the bus will help avoid unnecessary hustle and bustle and will also save time. Once inside the bus keep your calm avoid shouting or making noise that would distract the driver, always hold onto the handrail if standing in a moving bus, stay away from the footboard of the bus and never put any part of the body outside a moving or stationary bus.

Commuters should observe the following guidelines when traveling on the bus :

Commuters should not distract the bus driver while the bus in motion. All queries and requests are to be directed to the bus driver prior to travel or at the end of the journey.
Commuters should conduct themselves in a respectable and responsible manner at all times ensuring that their behaviour does not endanger the comfort and safety of their fellow passengers or the bus driver.
The bus driver should not make any unscheduled stops in the course of travel.
Commuters who breach these guidelines or who in the opinion of the bus driver have not acted in a responsible or respectable manner may be refused travel in the future.
All commuters must hand over to the bus driver a valid pre-purchased ticket on entering the bus.
Any commuter who does not hand over a valid pre-purchased ticket will be refused travel by the bus driver.

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