BENGALURU: Five south Indian states — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra — together account for 46.8 per cent of accidents in the country. This is indeed huge compared to the land area of the remaining 23 states.
Sourced from various government and independent, national and international reports and studies, NIMHANS, in collaboration with safety science company UL, on Friday released a summary report on road accidents to serve as a ready reckoner.
“This indicates that the South Indian states have expanding infrastructure. But this doesn’t mean there are more roads or poorer roads here. It means there is increased motorisation and hence focus should be on road safety practices,” said Dr G Gururaj, HOD, Epidemiology, NIMHANS.
A large number of accidents and deaths occur on rural roads (that include most of the national and state highways) where road safety is yet to gain importance. Indian highways account for a 4.84 per cent of the total road length but contribute to half of road accidents and 63 per cent of road deaths in India, the report said.
“Based on the summary of available data from Indian studies, it can be concluded that pedestrians, two-wheeler riders/pillions and cyclists account for nearly 80 per cent of road deaths and injuries, which is in contrast to official reports due to fallacies in reporting practices,” the report said.
A few studies conducted in India indicate that the number of deaths is likely to be higher by nearly 20 per cent while serious injuries are underreported by more than 50 per cent in official reports. As per national reports, only 22.1 per cent of accidents and 11.3 per cent of road deaths occurred in the five crore-plus cities in India in 2015 (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 2015).
Very few injured and seriously affected persons receive adequate trauma care and situation is worse in rural India. All severely injured, half of moderately injured and at least 10 per cent of the mildly injured will have lifelong disabilities.
Gururaj said, “Around a month back, the reporting mechanism was changed. The focus has to shift from impacting vehicle to ‘who is impacted’”
“Before the law on helmets was introduced in 2006, less than 10 per cent were wearing helmets, which has now increased substantially,” he said. He also advocated for full face helmets.