ROAD ACCIDENTS - BRING DOWN TO ZERO

According to Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Govt. of India, there were 4,90,383 road accidents in India during 2012 resulting in 1,38,258 deaths and causing injuries to 5,09,667 people. These numbers translate into nearly one road accident every minute, and one road accident death every 4 mts. More than half of the victims are in the economically active age group of 25-65 years, i.e., the loss of the main brad winner.

Road traffic accidents are amenable to remedial action like traffic management, design and quality of road infrastructure, application of intelligent transport systems, safer vehicles, law enforcement, effective and quick accident response and care etc. This could become possible with the involvement of health, transport and police.

According to World Health Organisation over 1.24 million people killed world wide caused by road accidents in the year 2010. Half of all road accident deaths are among pedestrians, cyclists and motor cyclists. Those aged between 15 and 44 years account for 59% of deaths. 3 out of 4 deaths are among men. The average rate was 18 per 1,00,000 people. 92% accidents occurred in low and middle income countries with South East Asia and Africa having the highest rates.

In India, the number of accidents is growing slowly but steadily, year after year. Trucks and two wheelers are involved in more than 40% of deaths. The afternoon and evening rush hours constitute the period with the maximum rate of accidents.

According to Kerala Police there are 36174 road accidents in Kerala with 4286 fatalities during the year 2012.  In the number of accidents Ernakulam Dist tops with 5718 accidents followed by Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur with 4618 and 3871 respectively. While there are 550 deaths in Thiruvananthapuram  there are 546 in Ernakulam and 445 in Thrissur. 41915 persons are injured in the state 9375 accidents occurred  on the national highways, 6718 on the state highways and 20081 on other roads. While in 25445 cases two wheelers are involved 10365 are cars, 1435 are KSRTC buses, 3819 are private buses and 7222 are autos. Rash driving is attributed as the cause in 35128 cases, 168 are due to drunken driving and 878 are due to other reasons..27145 accidents occurred during day time and 9029 during night time.

On scrutiny of accidents in the state for the past five years it is noticed that the death rate per 100 accidents in almost all state stand more or less constantly. This shows that the trends of fatal accidents remain same in each state. If this is identified and corrective measures are taken the death rate can be brought down at least to certain extends.

India is a top ranking nation in the number of road accident deaths. From the following figures it can be seen that Chine being a more populace country could bring down the number of accidents and accidents deaths considerably and steadily  Accidents in India from 2004 to 2009 are 429910, 439255, 460920,  479216, 484704 and 486384. During the same period in China the figures are 517889, 450254, 378781, 327209, 265204 and 238351. The deaths in the same period in India are 92618, 94968, 105749, 114444, 119860 and 125 660. During the same years deaths on roads in China are 107077, 98738, 89455, 81649, 73484 and 67759. It is evident from these figures that China could make significant reduction both in accidents and accidents deaths consistently during the same period in comparison with India. It would be worth for us to study the details of measures taken by that country quite effectively.

While there were 14500 road deaths in 114100 accidents in India in 1970 it became 138258 deaths in 438258 accidents in 2012. The number of registered motor vehicles in 1970 increased from 1401000 to 141866000 in 2011. The road length in 1970 increased from 1188728 km to 4690342 km in 2011.

During 2012 Tamil Nadu with 67757 top the list of road accidents in India followed by Maharashtra with 66316. As per these figures 13.8% of total accidents occurred in Tamil Nadu followed by Maharashtra with 13.5%. In total number of accidents per lakh population Goa is on top with 237.3 followed by Kerala with 103.9.Per 10000 vehicle Sikkim with 104.7 accidents and J&K with 71.8 are on top in 2011. Per one lakh km basis Puducherry with 5401.3 accidents and Goa with 4291.2 are the highest in 2011. From the 138258 accident deaths in India during 2012, 16175 are in Tamil Nadu, 16149 in UP, 14964 in AP and 13333 in Maharashtra. This makes a share of 11.7%, 11.7%, 10.8% and 9.6% respectively. In per lakh population TN top the list with 23.8 followed by AP with 17.5, Haryana and Punjab with 17.2 each. Per 10000 vehicles Sikkim with 27.3, WBengal 17.4,  Himachal Pradesh 17.2 and UP 16.2 are among the top in 2011. Total number of persons killed in road accidents per 10000 km of roads during 2011 Daman and Diu with 1391.5 top the list followed by Haryana with 1141.2, Jharkhand with 1076.0 and Puducherry with 850.3.

While classifying the cause of accidents in India during 2012, 385934 accidents with 101211 deaths are due to the fault of drivers. 5864 accidents with 2449 deaths are due to the fault of the cyclists. 12185 accidents with 4737 deaths are due to the fault of the pedestrians. Defects in condition of motor vehicles is the cause in 7037 accidents with 2739 fatalities. Weather condition has a share of 4530 accidents and 1900 deaths. All other causes make 68037 accidents and 222876 killings.

Intake of alcohol is the cause 23979 accidents and 7835 deaths in India during 2012. Out of these 5374 - 919 are in MP, 4558 - 2414 in UP, 3096 - 731 in TN and 1572 - 805 in Bihar. Over speed is the other cause in 223902 accidents and 60720 killings. In over speed accidents Maharashtra top the list with 39938 followed by TN with 28265, MP with 21755 and Karnataka with 20967. In killings due to over speed Maharashtra is on top with 8607 killings followed by TN 8043, AP 6201 and Gujarath 4640.

During 2012 there are 99854 accidents with 30522 deaths in India due to over load. TN with 20226 accidents and 4099 killings are on top in this category followed by MP with 12346 and 2000 and ap with 12016 and 4486.

Total number of road accidents in India during 2012 classified according to the type of vehicles involved two wheelers made 122968 accidents and 28022 killings. TN with 21947 accidents and 4324 deaths, MP with 16693 and 1689 and Maharashtra with 15111 and 3119 are the toppers. in this category. Auto rickshaws  involved in 33327 accidents killing 5847 persons. AP with 6556 accidents and 1488 killings is on top in auto rickshaw accidents followed by Maharashtra with 5208 and 658 and Kerala with 4999 and 263. In cars, jeeps and taxis category there are 105994 accidents and 25712 fatalities. Maharashtra with 15903 accidents and 2168 deaths is on top followed by TN 15375 - 2831, MP 11474 - 1382 and Kerala 8693 - 1040. Buses caused 43135 accidents country wide killing 25712 people TN with 7479 and 1998 deaths is number one followed by Kerala 4847 - 776 and MP 3939 - 580. Trucks, tractors etc were the cause in 111175 accidents and 39814 deaths. TN 14777 - 3690, Maharashtra 13158 - 3025 and MP  11433 -  2489 are leading in this category.

Total number of road deaths in India during 2009 were110993. TN 12727, UP 12679 and AP 12676 are the highest. In 2010 out of 199558 deaths the leading  states were TN 14241,AP 13932 and UP 13282. In 2011 the total was 121618 and the major states were TN 14359, AP13783 and UP 13004. In 2012, out of 123093 deaths the leading shares were same as in previous years, TN 15072, AP 13560 and UP 13293.

From the above analysis it can be seen that Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, AP, UP etc hold dubious distinctions in road accidents and their respective governments to take urgent steps to to bring down these figures by applying all possible methods.

When accidents are classified according to the educational qualification of the drivers out of the total number of accidents of 490383, upto 8th std made 88936(18%), 8 - 10 std 127374(26%), std 10 and above made 152397(31%) and qualification not known category made 121676(25%) accidents.

In order to curb road accidents the government together with people should take multipronged action because 12.4 lakh people lost their lives on the roads world over in 2010 out of which 1.3 lakh were in India. If 25% of these deaths were due to any natural calamities or epidemic or war this would have drawn the attention of the people from all over the world and the figure would have gone into the books of history. Since these numbers are spread over a period of one year and spread across the country the attention seems lacking. In 1945 bombing the death toll in Hiroshima was 90000 - 166000 and in Nagasaki was 60000 - 80000. The total military personnel died on both sides together in world war I was less than the accident deaths on the road during the last decade. The gravity of the case is yet to be realized as it demands.

I would like to draw the attention of the central  and the state governments and the people for remedial measures from a new angle with a firm target of zero rate of road accidents. Let us depend on the fundamental theory that there is a human error behind almost every road accident. We may put the right effort to rectify these errors. Today we have with us at one place to listen and obey us tomorrows road planners, road makers and road users. The traffic planners and the traffic managers are here. The top, middle and bottom law enforcement forces, the doctors, nurses and the para medical personnel are here. The motor vehicle manufacturers, sellers, buyers, drivers and all allied people are with us now.. Above all the law makers and administrators  too are here with us. It is a very rare opportunity  as we cannot get them at one place with such keen interest. All we have to do is to make them understand all about  road accidents, the facts and figures, the causes and remedies and all about our failures in detail. Let us include this subject in the carriculam from from class 1 to class 12 in all classes according to the potential of the students. They will make up their minds to confront this menace in due course. If we take the right decision now tomorrow we can move through our roads safely.

Source:Transport Research Wing, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

           Govt of India.

           WHO report

           WRS 2011

           Police Dept, Govt of Kerala

KVGeorge,

Kerala, India