Safety matters
Road safety has been one of the major concerns in developing nations like that of India where millions of people travel daily for work and other related reasons. The travelling of innumerable people using different modes of transport make them vulnerable towards mishaps as many areas across India do not have a well managed road network.
The annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) showed that India recorded 3,74,397 accidental deaths in 2020 with road crashes constituting over 35 per cent of such fatalities. The report released just two days back gives us the figures of the year 2020 when most of the activities witnessed closure owing to the covid-19 pandemic. Still the figure remained alarmingly high.
The number of accidental deaths in 2020 was, however, lower than 2019 when the figure stood at 4,21,104, the annual report of the NCRB showed. The rate of ‘accidental deaths’ per lakh population stood at 27.7 in 2020, down from 31.4 the previous year.
India recorded 3,54,796 cases of road accidents during 2020 in which 1,33,201 people died and 3,35,201 were injured. More than 60 per cent of the road accidents were caused due to over speeding, accounting for 75,333 deaths and 2,09,736 persons injured.
According to the NCRB, 43.6 per cent of victims of road accidents were riders of two-wheelers, followed by cars, trucks or lorries and buses accounting for 13.2 per cent, 12.8 per cent and 3.1 per cent of deaths due to road accidents, respectively.
Dangerous or careless driving or overtaking contributed to 24.3 per cent of road accidents which led to 35,219 deaths and 77,067 people being injured. Only 2.4 per cent of the road accidents were due to poor weather conditions suggesting that reckless driving is emerging as one of the key factors for road mishaps and the number of fatalities they cause.
The data showed 59.6 per cent, accounting for 2,11,351 cases, reported in rural areas and 40.4 per cent, 1,43,445 road accidents, in urban areas. Also, 31.8 per cent of total road accidents were reported near residential areas.
Besides, a total of 13,018 cases of railway accidents were reported during 2020 which rendered 1,127 people injured and resulted in 11,968 deaths. A majority (70 per cent) of railways accidents were reported under ‘fall from trains or collision with people on track’ (9,117 out of 13,018).
The report showed 1,014 cases of ‘railway crossing accidents’ which caused 1,185 deaths and 71 people were injured.
Ironically, the fatalities caused could have been much lesser if the people would have preferred to take precautions and followed traffic rules.
One of the major causes of increased road fatalities is that people tend to ignore the traffic laws and violate them quite often. Be it using helmets while driving a two wheeler, waiting for road signals or even crossing railway crossings at unmanned points people tend to overlook the safety measures which ultimately leads to loss of lives.
One thing which the people need to understand is that safety matters and they need to follow the rules to avoid mishaps that end up consuming more human lives.
KV Network
