Every six seconds someone is killed or maimed on the world’s roads, as per the latest data put out by the UN. Closer home, India tops the global count of road accident deaths. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) global status report on road safety claims that 1.3 lakh people are killed and over half-a-billion hurt in India each year, resulting in an economic loss of `75,000 crore.To arrest the trend at the global level, the UN has declared 2011 to 2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety. It seeks “to stabilise and then reduce the forecast level of road traffic fatalities worldwide by the year 2020”. The goal of the Action Programme is to reduce the forecast 2020 level of road deaths by 50 per cent, that is, from 1.9 million to less than one million a year. Achieving the 2020 target could save up to five million lives and prevent 50 million severe injuries in addition to an estimated economic benefit of US $3 trillion. The five pillars on which this programme rests is road safety management, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer road users and improved crash response.Global ResponseHundred governments co-sponsored the UN Resolution establishing the Decade of Action, committing to work to achieve this ambitious objective through an Action Plan with targets for raising helmet and seat belt use, promoting safer road infrastructure and protecting vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclists. Examples around the world include Canada, with its vision of having the safest roads in the world using proven road user, infrastructure and vehicle initiatives. Australia’s strategy calls for safe roads, safe speeds, safe vehicles and safe people in an effort to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 30 per cent by 2020. New Zealand has announced its Safe Journeys Action Plan 2011–2012, with the objective of making the road transport system more accommodative of human error, managing the forces that injure people to the level a human body can tolerate and minimising the level of unsafe road user behaviour.Indian SceneWhile the WHO report puts the casualty due to road accidents in India at 1.3 lakh, it is at best a conservative estimate, as recent studies show that the number of accidents not reported to the authorities is equal to six times the number of accident cases registered, which is a colossal figure. It is high time the authorities and public view this problem seriously and take immediate action on the issue. Will the UN motto “Safer world for all” become a reality or dream, especially in India? I keep my fingers crossed.(The author is chairman, Transport Advisory Forum, Chennai)
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