Better roads, safer vehicles, alert drivers can help reduce accidents: Dr Gururaj
Bengaluru:The State has nothing to be proud of when it comes to road safety as the latest analytical report released by UL and NIMHANS on Friday stresses that the State ranks second in terms of road traffic accidents and fourth in terms of road deaths. Highest number of deaths in year 2015 was reported from the states of Uttar Pradesh (18407), Tamil Nadu (15642), Maharashtra (13685), Karnataka (10857) and Rajasthan (10510).
The latest official figures on the road accident cases in the State reveal 10856 road deaths in 2015, however, the real numbers are 20% more. "There is available research evidence which states that of the road deaths reported, real numbers are 20% more and hence the real number for the State could be pinned at 13,028," reveals Dr G Gururaj, Head of WHO CC and Centre for public Health at NIMHANS and the author of national road safety report also highlights that NIMHANS witnesses some 80 cases of severe road traffic accident cases. The report also revealed that 3,90,840 serious road accident injuries and 9,11,960 major injuries all of which go unreported. The five southern Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra together accounted for 46.8% of accidents.
On Friday, to mark the Fourth United Nations Global Road Safety Week (May 8– 14),UL, a global safety science leader and National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) released an exhaustive analytical study titled 'Advancing Road Safety in India: Implementation is the Key' which could be used as a reference document to aid multiple stakeholders in developing comprehensive mechanisms to address the road safety crisis currently afflicting the country, the pan-Indian study delves into the accident data sourced from various government and independent, national and international reports and studies. It also offers a state wise perspective to indicate differential burden of road traffic incidents. Speaking about reducing deaths, Dr Gururaj adds, "if the five pillars of safety namely, road safety management, safer road infrastructure, safer vehicles, safer road users and post crash care systems then we can reduce deaths by 30%-40%."
