Issues and Challenges of Road Accidents in India: A State wise Analysis

INTRODUCTION

Traffic accidents have now earned India a uncertain distinction; with nearly 150,000 deaths annually, the country has overtaken China to top the world in road fatalities. India is the only country in the world which faces more than 17 fatalities and 56 injuries every hour as a consequence of road crashes, which is increasing day by day. While in many developed and developing countries including China, the situation is generally improving, India faces a worsening situation. If the trend continues, the total number of road traffic deaths in India would increase enormously. The main aim of this study is to analyze the road traffic accidents in India at national, state, and metropolitan city level. Focus would be to identify the major road safety issues and discuss countermeasures that would have potential to address the specific road safety problems. The Primary source of data for the study is Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India, 2001 - 2016 published by the National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, New Delhi. Fatalities and injuries resulting from road traffic accidents are a major and growing public health problem in India. Road traffic accident (RTA(s)) is one of the major preventable public health problems and is on the rise which can be accredited to increase in the number of vehicles, risky attitudes and lifestyle changes. In low and middle income countries (LMIC‘s) mortality due to RTA is projected to rise by 83% provided strict measures are not taken. Every week nearly 2,899 people get killed and 9,512 get injured due to traffic accidents. In 2016, latest year for which data is available, 1,50,785 people died and 4,94,624 people got injured due to road accidents in India. India is the only country in the world which faces more than 17 fatalities and 56 injuries every hour as a consequence of road crashes, which is increasing day by day. While in many developed and developing countries including China, the situation is generally improving, India faces a worsening situation. If the trend continues, the total number of road traffic deaths in India would increase enormously. LMIC‘s account for 91% of the global mortality due to RTA although these countries have only about 50% of the world‘s vehicles1. RTA is defined as, ‗‗An event that occurs on a way or street open to public traffic; resulting in one or more persons being injured or killed, where at least one moving vehicle is involved‖. ―A collision between vehicles and pedestrians, animals, and geographical or architectural obstacles can be also termed as RTA‖ (Mohan, 2006). According to ―National Crime Records Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs‖, RTA accounted for about one third of all unnatural causes of accidental deaths in the year 2016. Around 4,80,652 RTAs were reported in the same year. Mortality due to RTA has declined by 1.2% during the year 2016 in comparison to year 2015. Globally, nearly 1.2 million people die each year due to RTA. Injuries account for 2.1 % of global deaths due to it . As stated by deaths are reported due to RTA in India which accounts for 6% of the global burden, though it has only 1% of the vehicles globally. When compared to developed nations, the numbers of RTAs in India were three times higher. It has overtaken even the most populous China. Experts caution that the actual estimate of mortality as well as injuries due to RTA could be much higher than what is actually reported, which could be because of underreporting. The road accidents in india contributes 40 – 50 percent of total un-natural deaths. Here is a table which indicates this. As Table 1 indicates that of traffic accidents are the main cause of un-natural accidental deaths, as 40 – 50 percent of un-natural deaths are caused by traffic accidents. With the help of table two we can understand that the maximum number of deaths were occurred in Uttar Paradesh.

Road safety research in the Region is piecemeal, fragmented, not continuous and disconnected. The current status of research does not provide answers to the problem and requires innovative approaches and solutions in each country. There is no national road safety research agenda in any Member State of the Region. There is a severe shortage of dedicated road safety research institutions, trained human resources, funding and training programmes, despite the increasing number of deaths and injuries on the roads. Collaborative mechanisms to translate research into policies and action programmes are very poor and decisions made are unscientific and ad hoc in nature. There is a need for strategic research to focus on the five pillars of road safety in the Region as specified in the decadal action plans. Research should focus on better understanding on the contribution of roads, vehicles and human behaviour along with post-crash elements. Post-crash care, in terms of availability, accessibility and affordability needs to be examined in the context of huge social and economic diversities. Road safety management needs to be systematic and scientific, based on a critical understanding of barriers and challenges in each country. Road safety research is required from health, transport, road engineering, police and other partners for education, engineering, enforcement and emergency care. Research should extend beyond descriptive studies to identify and modify risk factors in different traffic environments and populations. Research in a number of these areas needs to be strengthened by governments, international organizations, the vehicle industry and others with institutional mechanisms. Improving human resources, funding, and coordination along with interdisciplinary research should be addressed in all Member States. Most importantly, research information should be applied for interventions, programmes and policies to reduce deaths and injuries on the roads.

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M.Phil. Scholar, Department of Geography, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak