Towards inclusive road safety policies & plans

Road traffic injuries have now become a major public health problem all over the world. India has been witnessing growth in terms of macro-economic indicators and with it, social and political changes. Very recently, the Lok Sabha passed amendments to the Motor Vehicle Bill 2016, though the Rajya Sabha refrained from taking it up. The amendments look at road safety very deeply from a law and order perspective. Regulations have been tightened for violators with regard to drunk driving, driving without helmet and seat-belts, over-speeding, jumping signals, and driving vehicles without a permit. India has an average of one police personnel for every 547 people going by the estimates of the police-to-population ratio. Of this, much attention is given to issues of crime, terrorism, communal violence, naxalism, security threats and now cyber crime. After all this, are road accidents and traffic concerns really anyone’s priority?

Nevertheless, inclusive road safety policies would require addressing and strengthening existing gaps with regard to post-crash interventions, behaviour change strategies, capacity building of trained volunteers in basic life support, and identifying and establishing high-risk accident zones. Many accidents that occur involve breadwinners; involve motorists in their productive age group and many remain injured for life, depending on others for their daily needs and adding a disproportionate socio-economic burden on families. In this context, it is important to create a mandatory social policy for every road user which will act as a safeguard to boost the existing amendments in the Bill. In addition, what India needs is ensuring that a driving licence is not given to every person who applies for it. The driver must know the proper usage of road signages, use of indicators, high beam lights, etc, which can go a very long way in mitigating accidents. 

Karnataka, last year, became the first state in India to introduce a novel road safety policy which offers Rs 25,000 to every accident victim and provides for free treatment for the first 48 hours post crash to any person including foreign nationals should they meet with an accident on Karnataka roads. Much of this was inspired by a road accident victim who offered his organs for donation while he was dying on the road. It also proposed the Good Samaritan act to abolish legal hassles which the passer-by or a volunteer who brings the victim to the hospital could face. 

India has been seeing a tide of road regulations with the recent Supreme Court ruling which banned liquor shops on highways. This ban on liquor shops is a decision which must be welcomed, although it arrived very late in India’s post-independence story. Road safety in India will require a systems approach to ensure that enforcement, infrastructure, and crash intervention go hand in hand besides concerted efforts towards financial allocations for medical research and strengthening human resources in healthcare to bridge the burden. 

BRICS countries contribute to 20 per cent of the world’s road accident deaths and India tops the list. The outcome of road safety measures and inclusive policy can be determined based on how accurately accident data would be recorded in times ahead, how smartly budgetary challenges are addressed to strengthen the existing mechanisms, and how we build institutions across India, across all states and districts, which will cater to a foolproof system of road regulation. The regulations must span from providing driving licenses, to ensuring basic first aid, to ensuring insurance checks and balances, besides regular re-enforcement of vehicle safety. 

Many car manufacturers in India make substandard cars which fail the UN’s minimum crash test regulations and do not have airbags which inflate in the event of a mishap. Ironically, we have Uber and Ola which reach faster than ambulances in case of a road accident. This gets compounded by the growing vehicular density and traffic congestion. Policies ought to factor in the thinking to build sustainable solutions now, instead of being sorry later. It is that time of the day when a ‘White Paper’ must be tabled in Parliament on the state of Indian roads  injury mitigation strategies. 

The author is CEO, CHD Group & Member-Health Task Force, DDMA, Govt of Karnataka. He can be reached on www.edmond.in