2. What is Road Safety?
Road safety is the safety of people from road side injuries and accidents.
It involves various methods and measures which must be followed by the
road users to prevent serious injury and accidents.
The term road traffic safety is an indication of how safe individual users are
on some particular road, or on the roads belonging to some region.
The main danger to road users is the likelihood of a traffic collision.
3. Road safety is must to be paid proper attention by each and every person
on the earth, whether using vehicles or not.
Children and students are the most vulnerable group towards the road
accidents, minor or major injuries and even death because of the lack of
adult supervision.
There should not be late in making children well aware about the road
safety rules and measures in their early ages.
It should be the duty of parents and teachers to teach them properly
under their nice supervision.
4. Road Accident Statistics
More than 1.2 million people are killed in Road Accidents, worldwide, every
year.
3 to 4 % of Gross National Product is lost in Road Accidents.
One child is killed in Road Accidents, in every three minutes in the World.
5. “Health of the Nation is more important than
the wealth of the Nation”
Road safety is a major public health concern.
Indian road network is second longest in the world covering more
than 3 million Kilometers.
80% of road length consists of village and other roads and 12%
constitutes major districts roads.
85% of passenger loads and 70% of freight load is carried by road.
As per 2015 data there were 72.7 million vehicles on roads and
vehicle fleets are doubling after every 6 to 7 years.
Financial outlay for road transport sector during 10th plan i.e.
20012-20016 was 9416.90 crores.
6. Road Accidents in India (In Thousands)
Year Road
Accidents
Persons Killed Persons
Injured
1970 114.1 14.5 70.1
1980 153.2 24.6 109.1
1990 282.6 54.1 244.1
2010 391.4 78.9 399.3
2016 439.2 94.9 465.2
7. Factors affecting Road Traffic Crashes:-
Types of roads and road users.
Colliding vehicles.
Environment and road related factors like road geometry, design, visibility, diversions etc.
Vehicle related causing traffic mix.
Composition and flow of road traffic.
Adherence / enforcement of road safety regulations.
Unsafe driving behavior.
Traffic congestion caused by increased use of private mode of transport and less practice of
vehicle pooling.
Highway capacity shortages (National Highways constitute less than 2 % of the road length
of the country but carry 40 % of road based traffic).
Lack of valid and fake driving licenses
Nature of traffic management.
8. •Over loading of vehicles particularly trucks and tractor trolleys.
Fig. Improper and overloading
9. Road Safety – A Challenge
80 % of road accidents are due to driver negligence and fault, so there is a need to
monitor driver training school regarding their infrastructure, equipment, quality
control, qualified driver training instructors.
Need for parking spaces and truck terminals out side the cities to reduce traffic
crashes.
Need to avoid using mobiles while driving.
Need to use helmets and seat belts while driving.
Need to inculcate road safety culture.
Need to count traveling time for reaching the destination.
Need to design roads in a way that even if a person is wrong the system does not
permit him to do that wrong.
Need to strictly enforce yellow color code for school buses and to regulate their
speed.
Need to stop the ringing up a e person while he is driving.
Need for stress free driving, avoid driving while under stress
10. Awareness
Some effective measures of road safety are like basic awareness about vehicle,
defensive driving according to weather and road conditions.
There are various methods of creating awareness among common public such as
seminars, workshops.
By adding basic road-safety lessons to syllabus in students education
Make people aware about green cross code means stop, look, listen, think and then
cross.
Learning of traffic lights, understanding of road signs, etc.
Following all the road safety measures help a lot to protect all the road problems.
Use of vehicle lights and horn, wearing seat belt, well use of vehicle mirrors, avoid
over-speeding.
Understanding road lights, maintaining distance of vehicle on road, proper
understanding of handling crisis situation, telecast of awareness documentaries on TV,
etc.
11. Road Traffic Injuries cause:-
Death.
Disability.
Hospitalization.
High Social and economic costs which include medical costs, cost related to
administration, Legal and police expenditure, collateral damage in terms of damage
to property and motor vehicles, loss due to income forgone rising out of absence
from work or disability.
In 2005, there were 4.4 Lakh road accidents leading to death of 94,968 persons i.e.
there was one road accident every minute and one road accident death every 6
minutes.
Quality of life of accident survivors becomes poor as they live with pain and
suffering.
12. Road Safety Rules for Children
Parents should teach their children to be extra attentive and look everywhere (left and right)
before crossing the road street.
Children should always cross the roads by holding hands of their elders or friends.
They should never run on the roads, should not be in hurry or leaving parents hand and be
calm.
They should be taught to only cross the roads at crossroads after seeing traffic signals for
pedestrians.
They must be aware of the meaning of colours (red means stop, green means go and yellow
means also stop), traffic light basics and importance of traffic signs on the roads. They
should wear helmet and use all the measures while riding bicycle on the roads by ensuring
proper functioning of brakes, horns and steering.
They should not use earphone or other music listening instruments while riding bicycle on
the road.
Parents may teach their children in better way by wearing seat-belts while driving a car or
helmet while driving a bike anytime.
Parents should follow all the road safety rules and road traffic rules while driving vehicle to
establish good examples in front of their children as they are first example in the lives of
their kids.
13. Multisectorial Involvement in Road Traffic Crash
Complete co-ordination in all these sectors is needed for the rescue,
transportation, trauma care and relief, investigation and compilation of
data to achieve total road safety in the interest of road users.
Road Traffic
Crash
Road Designers Transport Sector
Legal Sectors
Automobile Manufacturers
Insurance Sector
Health Sector
Civic Agencies
14. Flow of information in case of road traffic crash
Road Traffic crash
Informer
Police Control Room
(PCR)
PCR Van or Ambulance
Traffic Police
Police Station
Removes injured to the
hospital after giving first
aid and pre-hospital care
where ever possible.
15. Conclusion
Thrust of road safety is 4 E’s i.e. education, enforcement, engineering and
environment.
Road safety is very important for people of all age group to be safe and secure
as well as reduce the number of road accidents and injury cases.
So, everyone should strictly follow all the rules, regulations and signs of road
traffic lights. Children should be well practiced from the end of their parents at
home and get proper study by the teacher in the school.
Save Drive, Save Life..!!
