DNA Special: Despite better highways and latest cars, road accidents are on the rise

As science progresses, new technology arrives. If new infrastructure is built, it makes the life of a human being easy and long. But as highways are being built in our country and cars with latest technology are coming to the market, the death toll in road accidents is also increasing. This means that while highways have been built in our country and big cars and two-wheelers have also come, the people of our country do not know how to run the world's latest vehicles with discipline on these state-of-the-art wide roads.

According to a recent report by the Union Ministry of Road and Transport, the number of people who have died in serious road accidents in India has increased. In 2020, there were a total of 3,66,000 road accidents in India, of which 1,20,000 road accidents were such that one or more people were killed. In 2020, 36 people were killed in every 100 serious road accidents. In 2019, the figure was 33. 2020 was the same year when the coronavirus epidemic hit India and a lockdown was imposed in the country.

68 out of 365 days of 20202 were during a nationwide lockdown. That year, the roads of our country were empty, but this did not have much impact on road accidents.

In the year 2020, 1.5 lakh people died in India from Covid-19. On this, from the governments of our country to the people, all expressed concern. But on the other hand, 1.31 lakh people died in road accidents that year, but even today no one is talking much about it.

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What are the major reasons behind these road accidents?

The first is over-speeding. Of the road accidents that occurred in 2020, 73 percent were due to driving faster than the prescribed speed. 70 percent of the deaths were also due to over-speeding.

The second is wrong-side driving. This resulted in the deaths of about 6 percent i.e., 7,332 people. 39,589 people died due to not wearing helmets.

64 per cent of the road accidents took place because the roads were wide and people thought that they could drive in full speed on these wide roads.

All these figures show that wide roads have been built in our country and we also built expressways and big highways for cars with the latest technology to run on. But how to use these wide roads and cars with the latest technology, it has not come to the people of our country till date.

Efforts are being made to improve the direction of the road– but everyone is ready to turn the tide on those efforts. Burari on National Highway 9 is among the black spots in the country. There have been 46 accidents, 18 deaths and 25 injuries in the last two years. So, the work is being done to make this spot zero fatality zone.

The space of pedestrians, cyclists and auto stands has been segregated by installing barriers, spring posts, and cones at Burari intersection. 

The central government, with the help of the World Bank, has brought a scheme worth Rs 7, Rs 500 crore, using which the causes of accidents on highways can be corrected. But the biggest reason is the attitude of the people – how to change it is a big question. 

According to the border road organization report, 71 percent of the total accidents in India are caused by over speeding. The rest of the reasons include – poor design of roads in India – potholes on roads, not having speed breakers or being too many violations of traffic rules, and old vehicles moving on the road.

 According to a report made to assess the economic loss in 2019, 8 lakh vehicles were destroyed in accidents in India and India lost about Rs 180 crore in a year. But the bigger than this loss is the people who are losing their lives untimely every day. In India, 65 percent of the people killed in road accidents are people in the age group of 18 to 45 years, i.e., India is losing its young population in road accidents. And no currency has been made in the world to calculate the price of one's untimely death, i.e., compensation. So, go slow and stay safe. Because someone is waiting for you at home.