A road safety quartet and the road ahead

A road safety quartet and the road ahead

Context: The United Nations is holding a high-level meeting on Global Road Safety on June 30 and July 1, 2022 to review the progress and challenges.

Issues around road safety:

• Globally, about 14 lakh people die in traffic accidents annually, and nearly five crore are injured; over half of those killed are pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists
• Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) bear the maximum burden of road fatalities and injuries, with high economic costs an average of three to five per cent of GDP
• India and other countries could cut accident-related deaths by 25 to 40% based on evidence that preventive interventions produce good outcomes when applied to four well-known risk factors
  • high speed,
  • driving under the influence of alcohol,
  • not using proper helmets
  • not wearing seat-belts and not using child restraints
• Lowemphasis is placed on structural change such as raising engineering standards for roads, signages, signals, training for scientific accident investigation, raising policing skills
• Low emphasis giving to fixing responsibility on government departments for design, creation and maintenance of road infrastructure

Factors to improve road safety outcomes:

• Positive user behaviour — slower travel, wearing of helmets, seat belts and so on — could save thousands of lives
• The structural problems linked to unplanned motorisation and urbanization
• Speedy highway construction without reconciling fast and slow-moving traffic, presence of ramshackle vehicles, rampant wrong-side driving, absence of adequate police forces to monitor vehicles and curb drunk driving
• Poor trauma care in non-urban centres contribute to high death and disability rates.
• better engineering and enforcement can easily cut fatalities

The Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Act, 2019

It makes amendments to the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988 and introduces certain new traffic rules for road safety

Compensation for road accident victims:

• The central government will develop a scheme for cashless treatment of road accident victims during golden hour.
• The Act defines golden hour as the time period of up to one hour following a traumatic injury, during which the likelihood of preventing death through prompt medical care is the highest.
• The Act increases the minimum compensation for hit and run cases as follows: (i) in case of death, from Rs 25,000 to two lakh rupees, and (ii) in case of grievous injury, from Rs 12,500 to Rs 50,000

Compulsory insurance:

• The Act requires the central government to constitute a Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, to provide compulsory insurance cover to all road users in India.

Good samaritans: 

• The Act defines a good samaritan as a person who renders emergency medical or non-medical assistance to a victim at the scene of an accident

Recall of vehicles: 

• The Act allows the central government to order for recall of motor vehicles if a defect in the vehicle may cause damage to the environment, or the driver, or other road users.

National Transportation Policy: 

• The central government may develop a National Transportation Policy, in consultation with state governments.

Road Safety Board:

• The Act provides for a National Road Safety Board, to be created by the central government through a notification.  The Board will advise the central and state governments on all aspects of road safety and traffic management