BENGALURU: The Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) can help prevent 33 per cent of accidents involving two-wheelers, according to Robert Bosch, which released findings of its ‘Accident Research Project’ on Wednesday.
“Every third accident with casualty involving PTW (powered two-wheeler) could be avoided by PTW ABS. A reduction in collision speed is estimated for nearly every fifth accident,” says the report. Not many two-wheelers in India come with ABS.
Speaking about the ‘Accident Research Report’ during a webinar, Vijay Ratnaparkhe, president and MD, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, said use of technology can help reduce a number of accidents. Bosch creates technology that makes driving safer, he said.
The report states, ABS intervention would have avoided 20 per cent of accidents involving cars. It also highlights the importance of seat belts and air bags.
In accidents on the Coimbatore and Mumbai-Pune highways, that were analysed for the study, 78 per cent of seats were equipped with seat belts, but only 13 per cent passengers used them. Eighty four per cent of vehicles were not equipped with air bags, 14 per cent had air bags while in 2 per cent, status of air bags was not known.
All passenger vehicles produced in India will be fitted with air bags with effect from January 2017 and all PTW (two-wheelers) produced in India will be fitted with ABS with effect from October 2017. Discussions have been completed and is yet to be notified (by the government), the report states.
India accounts for 10 per cent of the global road crash fatalities as we are yet to adopt a system of scientific investigation and analysis of road crashes. An accident takes place every minute, the report states.
Quoting statistics compiled by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 4,86,476 accidents were reported in 2013 in which 4,94,893 people were injured and 1,37,572 died, the Bosch report states.
“Of these, 29 per cent of fatalities were two-wheeler riders which constitutes the highest, and 17 per cent fatalities were occupants of passenger cars, which constitutes the second highest contributor for fatal accidents in India,” the report states. Road Accident Sampling System For India (RASSI), a database of accident analysis, was set up after analysing accidents on national highways near Coimbatore, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.