India holds the dubious distinction of registering the highest number of road accidents in the world. According to the experts at the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NTPRC), the number of road accidents in India is three times higher than that prevailing in developed countries. The number of accidents for 1000 vehicles in India is as high as 35, while the figure ranges from 4 to 10 in developed countries.
With the expansion in road network, motorization and urbanization in the country, the number of road accidents have surged. Road traffic injuries and fatalities have emerged as a major public health concern, with RTIs having become one of the leading causes of deaths, disabilities and hospitalizations which impose severe socio-economic costs across the world. Road accidents are one of the significant causes of disability, injury and death in the world. The trauma is unimaginable – physical, mental, financial, caused by road accidents, and many a time irrevocable!
Safety studies have found that a majority of accidents occur either due to the driver’s error or due to the negligence of the safety norms. Driver fatigue and drunken driving are some other reasons of mishaps. Actions like dangerous overtaking, lane cutting, jumping of signals, erratic parking etc., can be counted as major causes for the calamities on the roads. Usually, accidents are prevalent in urban cities where “Speed” of the vehicles is uncontrollable and where each and every individual is in a hurry. Private vehicles get struck in the local roads, while the commercial vehicle accidents are prevalent on highways. Buses also play a role. Many bus tires get exploded, while most accidents occur because they do not use dim headlights.
Transport departments of each and every city around the world has been entrusted with the responsibility of providing a smooth public transportation system on roads, controlling pollution under permissible limits, keeping a record of registration of vehicles & insurance of vehicles, issuing permits and collection of taxes. These departments function by devising policies, implementing them and then monitor and regulate the functioning of the transport in the city.
Traffic rules of the roads are both the laws and the informal rules, that may have been developed over time to facilitate the orderly and timely flow of traffic. With the replacement of ancient horse driven carts with cars and trucks, the speed of the traffic increased, paving the way for the need of smooth roads and yet smoother traffic. So, to curb the need of the smoother traffic, some rules were devised to assure that the traffic runs smooth. Almost all of the roadways traffic rules are built with devices meant to control traffic.
Most countries have a multi-disciplinary approach to traffic planning and road design. It is done by psychologists, engineers, doctors, sociologists and vehicle experts. In India, traffic is still a civil engineering issue.” Every hour, 40 budding youths under the age of 25 lose their life in road accidents worldwide. 1.2 million people die in traffic accidents every year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), road accidents happen to be the second most important cause of death for 5 – 29 year olds.
According to the Global Road Safety Partnership, almost 1.2 million people are killed and 20 to 50 million injured or disabled in car accidents every year, with 85 percent of the deaths occurring in developing and transitional countries.