Trucks kill four people in Gujarat everyday, says report

The death of 19 people on the Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar highway after a cement laden truck overturned may come as a shocker to many but Road Accidents in India 2016 - a report by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways — has revealed that trucks claim four lives a day on an average and grievously injured four others everyday in Gujarat.

While these numbers only represent trucks, the calculation of average fatalities by other heavy vehicles like bus, tempo and such reveal a much larger problem. Among all the heavy vehicles, trucks accounted for the highest number of accidents and deaths.

In fact, in the year 2016 alone, trucks accounted for 3,537 accidents in the state, which comes to an average of nine accidents a day. Of these, 1,368 accidents were fatal. This means 38 per cent of all accidents involving trucks resulted in at least one fatality.

Of the total number of people involved in truck accidents, 1,513 died during the year 2016 while 1,459 were grievously injured. 1,250 people escaped with minor injuries while being involved in accidents with or due to trucks.

It should be noted that Gujarat ranks 10th in the country as far as number of accidents (involving all types of vehicles) in percentage is concerned. The state accounts for 4.5 per cent of all the accidents in the country. It ranks eighth in total number of people killed in accidents accounting for 5.8 per cent of all accident deaths in the country.

However, Samir Pathak of Centre for Advanced Training in Driving — who among other things, trains drivers of vehicles carrying hazardous material — warns not to paint all truck drivers as careless.

"It has been my observation that truck drivers who drive long distance are often very careful drivers. It is the ones who drive short distance who are often involved in such accidents," said Pathak.

"They (truck drivers) give a ride to people to earn some additional income and sometimes overload the truck if the client insists. They do it because they do not realise the impact of overcrowding and overloading on the vehicles. They have no clue how it affects their grip on on the steering wheel, how it impacts the brakes etc," he said.

"It has been my observation that if you train drivers well, make them aware of the hazards that await them if they were to do some things or not do somethings, most of them will be careful. Unfortunately, not many drivers, particularly who drive short distance, get such training."

Pathak also warned of fatigue among drivers. "Sometimes they are overworked and hence terribly fatigued and that is also the cause of accidents. But a driver who has had proper training will realise the dangers of driving while fatigued and will most often desist from doing so."

An RTO official, who has closely worked with the section that issues licences to drivers of heavy vehicles, agrees with Pathak. "Truck drivers often don't have a set pattern of work. They work when work comes their way. So it means many work without rest or were involved in some other work when the particular driving assignment came their way. This increases the chances of them being tired when on road, leading to accidents," the official said.

He said another reason is that many times, people, particularly those who are poor, choose to get a ride from trucks because it turns out cheaper for them. "For the driver it is an additional income, for the passenger it is a means of transport that is cheaper, so both believe it is mutually beneficial but no one bothers to stop and think of the hazards of travelling atop a loaded truck," said the official.