Road safety continues to be a major developmental issue, a public health concern and a leading cause of death and injury across the world; however, in India, the problem is far more serious. At least one out of 10 people killed on roads across the world is from India, according to the World Health Organization.
The cost of road accidents is borne not only by the victims and their family, but by the economy as a whole in terms of untimely deaths, injuries, disabilities and loss of potential income. On Tuesday, the United Nation’s Special Envoy for Global Road Safety Jean Todt could not agree more as he asserted that Road Safety issue is as urgent as COVID-19 considering how crashes destroy lives and economies on a daily basis, emphasising that not enough is being done for the pandemic on our roads.
According to the World Health Organisation, road crashes kill more than 1.3 million people each year – more than two every minute – with 9 in 10 of these preventable deaths occurring in low-and middle-income countries. India witnesses five lakh road accidents in the country (every year), which includes two lakh deaths, according to Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. According to statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCBR), in 2021, around 46 severe road accidents occurred per hour in the country. Every year, approximately 1.5 lakh people die on India’s roads, which translates, on average, into 1,130 accidents and 422 deaths every day or 47 accidents and 18 deaths every hour.
Jean Todt’s remarks came on a day when eight people were killed and 17 sustained injuries after three vehicles plunged into deep gorges in Doda and Ramban districts of Jammu and Kashmir in separate incidents on Tuesday. If the statistics are a measure to go by, nearly 200 people have lost their lives in more than 1800 road accidents reported across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in only the first four months of the current year. On an average, 12 fatal road accidents are taking place every day across the parts of Jammu and Kashmir. There have been 1812 road accidents reported from across the UT between January to April this year in which around 200 people were killed and 2350 people were injured.
In Jammu district, 376 accidents took place with 65 deaths and 400 injuries, in Kathua, 143 accidents were reported in which 36 people were killed and 225 sustained injuries, in Udhampur, 14 people were killed in 147 accidents and 244 injured, in Samba, in 100 accidents, 17 people were killed and 107 were injured, in Reasi district, 119 accidents were reported in which 18 people lost their lives and 115 were injured, in Srinagar, 143 accidents claimed 18 lives and 129 injured, in Anantnag, 90 accidents were reported in which 15 people were killed and 123 were injured and in Baramulla, eight people were killed in 65 accidents and 90 suffered injuries.
It is indeed a matter of great concern that despite the continuing efforts of the Government in this regard and our commitments for halving fatalities, we have not been able to register significant progress on this front. The central government and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in particular have been making gigantic efforts in making the Indian roads safe for the travellers, but the trends are not reversing at all.
