In a city where crime is often on a runaway spiral, with lives lost almost on the murderous whim of some deranged gunslinger or knife-wielder, accidents kill nearly as much, if not more. According to data available with the Delhi Police, at 949, the number of fatal accidents recorded, so far, this year, far outstrips the number of murders — 343, till August 31. And, when it comes to accidents in the national capital and people falling prey to them, commercial vehicles vie as much for infamy as public and private ones.
It’s not wayward claims but cold statistics that bear out the sheer extent of accident deaths in the city. And, road accidents involving trucks, tempos or other commercial vehicles, contribute significantly to fatalities and life-changing injuries in these incidents.
Data collated by the Delhi Traffic Police throws up some disturbing numbers, showing how commercial vehicles often turn killers on roads. It says heavy transport vehicles caused 184 fatal crashes and accounted for 11.10 per cent of the fatalities in such incidents in 2018.
With city roads already crammed with traffic, to the extent that urban planners are putting their heads together for alternative solutions to free up road space, commercial vehicles roll into the city at night, adding to snarls and vehicular pollution.
According to road safety experts, drivers of commercial vehicles mostly lack proper training. They are fatigued by the time they cross over to the city, thereby posing a life risk to commuters.
According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, between 2013 and 2016, as many as 1,87,623 lives were lost across the country to road accidents involving “trucks, tempos and articulated vehicles”. Over 98,000 road accidents were reported in 2017 alone, leaving 37,505 people dead.
The accidents that year also killed 17,159 truck drivers, accounting for 11.6 per cent of the fatalities recorded.
Lack of training
Piyush Tewari, founder, Save Life Foundation, a non-profit which aims at raising general awareness on road safety, said around 35 per cent of all fatal road accidents, recorded nationally, involve heavy commercial vehicles.
The organisation recently conducted a survey, sampling 1,000 truckers ferrying heavy loads from two major transport hubs — Tata Steel plants in Jharkhand and Ghaziabad, also a transit point for trucks coming from both the northern and southern reaches of the country. The survey listed training as the first and foremost challenge for truck drivers.
“Most of our commercial vehicle drivers have never been put through a drivers’ training programme. They follow the Ustad-Khalasi system, whereby truck cleaners take motoring lessons from drivers, who learned their ropes from someone else. Most have no idea what a blind spot is or how to ensure the safety of other road users. They’ve never been told about the risks that boozing at the wheel and speeding pose,” Tewari said.
Driver fatigue
Citing driver fatigue as another reason for accidents, he said, “Most of these truck drivers drive for 14 to 15 hours without any rest. More than these drivers, I would blame the vehicle owners, consigners and supervisors more as they force them to drive long hours to move goods from Point A to B.”
He said the condition of the vehicles, most of which are rickety at best, is also to blame for such incidents.
Citing the recent fatal accident near India Gate, in which two people, a father and daughter, riding a scooter, were killed when a dumper rammed the two-wheeler, Tewari said the heavy vehicles aren’t properly maintained.
The driver of the killer truck had claimed to have lost control of the vehicle. “We often lose sight of the fact that these drivers are fatigued and are not fully trained. The combination is a deadly cocktail often leading to loss of lives or life-changing injuries on roads,” Tewari said.
He proposed three solutions to make truckers responsible and roads safe. These, he said, are a formal education programme free of charge or at minimal rates; fatigue management, enabling owners to be hauled up for excessive driving by their men or a drowsiness detection technology, which is designed to detect fatigue from eye-lid movement and yawning. Sri Lanka, Bhutan and China are among countries to have adopted this technology, he said.
He said the proposals of fatigue management and drowsiness detection technology have already been mooted to the central government.
Rules more stringent
In what is being seen as a first significant step towards road safety, the Parliament, in July, passed the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill, 2019, seeking to make road rules more stringent by imposing stricter penalties for violations. Earlier, one had to head to the place where a truck is registered to examine its fitness certificate. Under the revised road safety rules, it could be done at any authorised centre in the country.
Short on manpower
“There is a shortage of one million truck drivers in the country, as people don’t see it as a lucrative line of work these days. In a single trip, the owners tend to load more than the permissible limit in a bid to tide over the shortage of manpower. Most of these trucks are overloaded, thereby affecting their condition,” Tewari said.
Prince Singhal, founder, Community Against Drunken Driving (CADD), said, “Commercial vehicle drivers are often not trained in driving ethics and road safety, thereby resulting in more accidents,” he said in an emailed interview.
CADD has tied up with commercial vehicle drivers as part of Drive Safe Daddy — Road Safety Intervention Program. Through this initiative, they have reached out to over 1,00,000 commercial vehicle drivers, spreading awareness on safe and sober driving. As many as 56 per cent of drivers surveyed by CADD admitted to driving 12 to 15 hours at a stretch on days. “Drink driving was also found to be prevalent among drivers,” Singhal said.
Entry restricted
“Commercial vehicles can only enter the city between 11 pm and 7 am. Our traffic posts on border areas maintain vigil so that these vehicles don’t cross over into the city beyond the stipulated hours,” Narender Singh Bundela, Joint CP, Traffic, said.
