Road accidents get scarier: With 17 deaths/hour, govt needs to urgently pass new motor vehicle law

New Delhi: If you are driving, cycling, or just walking on the roads of the national capital, you are more likely to suffer an accident than any other Indian city. Delhi remained the deadliest city in India in terms of road accident fatalities in 2016, with Chennai following close behind. Delhi’s dubious distinction in terms of accident deaths is not surprising, given the highest vehicle population in the city and the notorious lack of driving etiquette among Delhiites which often also leads to innumerable road-rage incidents. Last year, 1,591 people lost their lives in road accidents in Delhi, followed by Chennai at 1,183 dead on roads. That means more than four people died daily on Delhi roads and more than three in Chennai. Jaipur at 890 and Bengaluru at 835 followed the two Indian mega metros in road deaths. Mumbai was comparatively safer in terms of road deaths, with 562 deaths, lower than even Kanpur and Lucknow. According to  this article, in 2015-16, the number of new vehicles registered in Delhi shot up to 8.77 lakh from 5.34 lakh in 2014-15. As many as 29.87 lakh new cars/ jeeps were registered in 2015-16 in Delhi, while a whopping 61.04 lakh new two-wheelers were registered. With road space hardly growing, this fast paced increase in vehicle density is an obvious reason for rising road accidents in Delhi. [caption id=“attachment_3833651” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] In fact, 17 people died on India’s roads every hour last year in 55 road accidents. According to a report by the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH), road accidents alone killed 150,785 people across India in 2016 — a 3.3 percent jump from 2015 when 146,000 lakh road fatalities were reported. In other words 4,785 more Indians were killed on the country’s roads last year compared with 2015. That means daily, 13 more people died in road accidents in 2016 over the previous year. If the government sticks to its own target of reducing road accidents fatalities by 50 percent in the next two years, what steps does it propose to take? The Motor Vehicle (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is still pending in the Rajya Sabha - the Bill addresses road safety issues by providing for stricter penalties for traffic offences, permitting electronic and IT-enabled enforcement, improving fitness certification and licensing regime, statutory provision for protection of good samaritans etc. If at all there is any seriousness among law makers on reducing road fatalities, this bill should not only be cleared expeditiously but penalties for road offences should be multiple times higher, compensation for loss of life also needs to be increased substantially. Who among road users is most at risk? Two-wheeler riders seem most vulnerable. Every third accident in 2016 involved a two-wheeler and only about every fifth involved a four-wheeler (car, jeep or taxi). Minister of State in the road ministry Pon Radhakrishnan had told the Lok Sabha last month that in 2015, about one fatality occurs every 15 minutes with two-wheeler riders on India’s roads. Between 2013 and 2015, as many as 126,380 two-wheeler riders perished on India’s roads The road ministry’s study found that among vehicle categories, two-wheelers accounted for the highest share in total number of road accidents (33.8 percent) in 2016, followed by cars, jeeps and taxis (23.6 percent), trucks, tempos, tractors and other articulated vehicles (21.0 percent), buses (7.8 percent), auto-rickshaws (6.5 percent) and other motor vehicles (2.8 percent). The share of two-wheelers in total road accidents has increased from 28.8 percent in 2015 to 33.8 percent in 2016. Was not wearing the helmet killing so many two-wheeler riders? Well, data suggest that every fifth two-wheeler fellow dies due to this; 52,500 two-wheeler riders were killed in road accidents during 2016. Of this, 10,135 were not wearing helmets. The number of people not wearing seat belts who died during a road accident was another 5,638. Over-speeding lead to almost every second accident in India in 2016 and caused almost every second death. Loosely translated this means at least 8 people died every hour somewhere on a road in India due to speeding beyond permissible limits. Drunk driving killed over 6,000 people and driving while making that all-important call to your boss or spouse caused more than 2,000 deaths. It is sad to see that youth, people below the age of 35 years, accounted for 46.3 percent (69,851 persons) and up to 45 years, accounted for 68.6 percent (1,03,409 persons) of road fatalities in 2016. In other words, almost every second person who died on India’s roads last year was 45 years or below.