68 Per Cent Of People Killed In Accidents Are 18-45 Years Old, Says Nitin Gadkari Urging Parties To Clear Road Transport And Safety Bill
Expressing concern over the staggering number of Indians getting killed and injured in road accidents, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari asked all the political parties to cooperate and help pass the Road Transport and Safety Bill in Parliament on priority
Highlights
- Nitin Gadkari said that 4.60 lakh road accidents have taken place in 2017
- Mr Gadkari asked the political parties to help pass the bill on priority
- Deaths on roads could have been lower if bill was passed: Nitin Gadkari
New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday presented the statistics on road accidents in India, attending the Lok Sabha session; he said that as many as 1.46 lakh people lost their lives in 4.60 lakh road accidents across the country in the year 2017. Mr Gadkari also underlined the fact that a majority of the road accidents involved two-wheelers where the victims were not wearing helmets. He also asked all the parties to cooperate in clearing Road Transport and Safety Bill in Parliament. The bill was passed by all the members of Lok Sabha on April 10, 2017 and is pending with Rajya Sabha for approval.
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“If the law had been approved by Parliament, the deaths on Indian roads could have been lower,” said Mr Gadkari during Lok Sabha Question Hour.
Highlighting the statistics of the year 2016, the minister said the detailed age profile of road accidents victims in 2016 reveals that the most effected age group was 18-45 years, they together accounted for 68.6 percent (1,03,409 persons) of road accident fatalities.
Mr Gadkari also highlighted various steps that have been taken by the ministry of road transport and highways like establishing road safety information database, encouraging safer road infrastructure including an application of intelligent transport, enforcement of safety laws, along with measures that were taken by the ministry to promote awareness. He added,
The government has constituted the national road safety council as the apex body to take policy decisions in matters of road safety. The ministry has also requested all states and UTs to set up state road safety council and district road safety committee and hold their meetings regularly.
Mr Gadkari earlier has also said that a committee has been formed by the ministry of roads and transport and they have suggested a ban on the production of substandard helmets. This has been done to ensure that people wear only good quality helmets. He also said that the ministry has been asking manufacturers to innovate on designs and come up with light helmets that are not very expensive and that work well in tropical climate, so that majority of people can use better quality helmets in India.
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Poorly designed and constructed roads will not safe for commuters with any kind of law.
Even the newly constructed Highways like “Yamuna Expressway” is poorly designed.
I am not aware of what is proposed in the Road Transport and Safety Bill. However, I am of the view that road safety can only be improved by inculcating proper and safe driving habits, and enforcing the same by enforcement agencies. How many of us are aware and follow safe driving practices. We don’t indicate lane change intention by making use of indicators. We don’t care about vehicles in blidspot which can’t be seen in rearview mirrors. Are we aware of the risk of tailgating, especially at high speeds in highways? The purpose of Yellow signal light is for safe stoppage, before or after signal. But, we keep jumping the signal. We don’t keep the traffic junction cleared of vehicles if the onward signal is red in color. Slow drivers cause accidents in highways as they don’t move along with traffic. Slow drivers create nuisance and traffic build, even though they think they are driving safely. There are lot more such things in our driving. Unless we learn these, put into practice, and officers enforce it, the safety is not ensured.