Steps for bringing down Road Accidents in India (2)

• Raising of lower age limit for two wheeler and Heavy Vehicle license to 21.
• Helmet should be made compulsory by law in all states, OR impose a lower speed limit for those who do not use helmet.
• Helmet should be made compulsory for back seat riders also
• Ensure that all Helmet users are fixing the Chinstrap of Helmet.Otherwise it will not help during an accident.
•  Ensure that ONLY good quality Helmets are available in the market.
• Strict enforcement of existing traffic rules.
• Law should be modified such that the person who made the accident has to bear (say) 0 to 10 % of the insurance claims, depending on severity of negligence. Also the compensations should be made very huge, making accidents unaffordable so that everyone will be very vigilant.
• All those who do not maintain the safe distance for the speed should be punished. 
• Safety awareness should begin from childhood, as it is difficult to impart awareness to a grown up a human. If safety awareness is imparted at childhood, safety will be a habit.
• Video / Computer Games that simulate Racing should be banned by Government OR discouraged by parents as it will develop racing habit in children.
• All sorts of Motor sports especially racing should be banned in India by government. Telecast of Motor Sports and Racing also should be banned.
• Racing and over speed / highly risky riding, driving by Heroes should not be filmed in cinemas and TV serials. Government should censor such scenes.
• Children below a certain age should not be permitted to do cycling in busy roads / roads where heavy vehicles are plying.

Steps for bringing down Road Accidents in India.

Some of the following suggestions may be irrelevant, obsolete or even ridiculous, but it is sure that most of the suggestions are capable of saving thousands of lives.

• Most important method to bring down accidents is strict enforcement of speed limits. 90 % of accidents can be avoided by strict enforcement of speed limits.

• Penalty of ( say ) minimum Rs. 1000 should be imposed on ALL
those who cross speed limits. If this is strictly implemented,
nobody will dare to go at high speed.

• Existing speed limits should be brought down further.

• Heavy penalty for those who cause accidents.

• Tamper proof speed controllers should be made mandatory for all
heavy vehicles. New heavy vehicles should have built in tamper proof speed controllers.

• Two wheeler manufacturers should be asked to design two wheelers with a designed maximum speed of (say) 50/60 kmph.

• New gadgets are to be developed for collision prevention and should be fitted on all vehicle. DRDO and other research organizations should be asked to develop such gadgets on a war
footing. For example, gadgets can be developed to automatically slow down the vehicle, if safe distance commensurate with the speed of the vehicle in front is not maintained.

• Diving tests for issue of Driving license is to be made more stringent and foolproof.

Decade of Action for Road Safety by WHO (1)

Road Safety

Improving global road safety

Note by the Secretary-General
The Secretary-General transmits the report on improving global road safety, prepared by the World Health Organization in consultation with the United Nations regional commissions and other partners of the United Nations Road Safety Collaboration.

Introduction

1. Nearly 1.3 million people in the world die each year of road crashes, 

90 percent of them in low- and middle-income countries. 

Another 20 to 50 million people suffer serious injuries. 

Road traffic injuries are also the leading cause of death for people from 10 to 24 years of age. 

Significant numbers of road traffic fatalities and injuries can be prevented by addressing the leading causes, which include 

excess speed, 

• lack of seat-belt and 
• child restraint use, 
• drinking and driving, 
• lack of helmet use by riders on two-wheel and three-wheel motorized vehicles, 
• poorly designed and inadequately maintained roads, 
• unsafe infrastructure and vehicles, and 
• inadequate trauma care.

2. On World Health Day in 2004, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank jointly launched the World report on road traffic injury prevention, stressing the importance of road traffic injury prevention and making several recommendations on how countries can address the problem.

Road accidents