In a bid to learn about 'Road Safety', I attended a Conference on 'Public Private Partnership in Road Transport and Infrastructure' at New Delhi. Here are some viewpoints on 'Road Safety' from the experts:
Mr. Rohit Baluja-President, Institute for Road Traffic Education (IRTE), New Delhi
''1,30,000 people die in India and almost 1.5million are seriously injured. The problem is basically that we need a political will. The will has to come from the top and it has to flow down from the politicians to the bureaucracy and then it comes down to the people. But what the people can do is atleast do not buy license. Go through a proper driving training test, do not be in such a hurry that you want to lose your life, coz Life is precious and make sure as little violations would do, would be best for us and the country. This will be the contribution from a Road User.''
Professor S.L.Dhingra, IIT Bombay
''Road Safety consists of three to four components- environmental safety, geometric component and traffic component, everything should be as per the specifications and desirability. For Road Safety we have to conduct couple of audits, safety audit per se but with that component of geometric audit, traffic audit and environmental audit. Social audit is also important in which Human behavior has to be studied like enforcement and the like. The things should be studied from all the angles, but we think geometric audit is very important where geometrics are considered for example if curves are not properly defined, visibility is not there, markings, signange or signals, widening on the curves, the super elevation on the curves and so on are very important. In other countries accident reconstruction is done, which is quite significant. Accident reconstruction is to find out the different causative factors leading to road accidents, where you can re-do the model by changing different factors one at a time as there'll be n number of factors and then coming up to the factor that might be contributing the most towards the Road accidents, we call it 'Crash' rather than 'Accidents'. Then the spot is identified, experiments are done and safe way of moving and reacting, taking care of all the specifications which are there and are meant for it are done.''
Professor Pradip Sarkar- Department of Transport Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi
''Road Safety problem in India is very very important with respect to saving our valuable lives and also of our society . More than one lakh and thirty thousand people die in India every year because of Road and Transport related accidents. So, the question is when you look at the Road safety aspects in the developed countries, you will find there is a major difference and practically if you look at the victims of Road accidents all over the world, over one billion people have died particularly India takes ten percent of that. Who are to be blamed and responsible for it? I think we all have to blame ourselves. If one has to be a good Road User please drive carefully and if you have to drive carefully, you need to get your driving license in the most rational, judicious mode and knowledgeable way. Its not that you approach the Regional Transport or the Road Transport Office to get your license. You have to be fully prepared not only with the books but also practice yourself so that you take an oath that you never ever make any mistakes when you drive on the roads. If you have that commitment to drive and when you drive your vehicles without being drunk and with alertness, also realizing the fact that you are carrying a vehicle which is more than a ton and if in case it touches anybody it can not only cause fatality but also other problems as well. Therefore, you have to be morally conscious as your driving has lot of effect on others as well who can fall into dangerous situations because of wrong driving. So, drive safely and save the society from your good driving.''
Dothy Harjanto, Port Industry, Indonesia
''Speaking about Road Safety I think most of the developing nations has the same problem. Problems like Road infrastructure, regulation, awareness among the people, public transportation that government and community provides and also law enforcement. In Indonesia, we have new regulation regarding Road and Transport management, we have 'tax progressive' for owning cars. In order to minimize the number of cars on roads, the people are expected to use Public transportation which reduces the traffic and expected to reduce the road fatalities. Other regulation is 'Three in One' during peak hours which implies there should be atleast three people in one car otherwise the government will put a fine. This works as most of the people prefer to stay at the office during those hours or they come early reducing the traffic chaos on roads.''
