Indian Road Safety Standards Compared to Global Standards.

As road safety is a complex topic, we need to have a multidisciplinary approach to traffic planning and road design, writes Ramashankar Pandey.

Road accidents remain the biggest cause of unnatural deaths in India. While millions of Indians drive everyday 415 people never come back home which includes 29 children. Year on year 1.5 lakh Indians die on our roads which is equivalent to almost a city of the size of cities like Gangtok, Chitaurgarh etc. vanishing from the face of earth. While this has been happening, people have been equally either ignorant or negligent about their own safety while on the roads. Road safety still is a subject which isn't on the highest priority as compared to other health or safety related issues.

While globally road safety is taken with absolute seriousness, we have lacked that here in India. Vehicular safety is now more or less at par with global standards however overall road safety standards still needs a sustained approach. The various Automotive Industry Standards (AIS) mandated by the CMVR 1989 and also in the amendment of 2019 ensures strict compliance of safety standards at par with global standards. The highest number of vehicle safety norms, were made mandatory for compliance in 2019, making automotive in India safer and in-line with the global standards in practice. 

India ranks at the top with the highest automotive fatalities in the world, accounting for almost 11 per cent, but the number is likely to come down as a series of safety norms, both active and passive, have been adopted for vehicles in 2019, the highest ever. The driver-side airbag, a speed warning alarm, seatbelt reminder alarms for both driver and co-driver, and rear parking sensors now comes as a standard fitment in all cars. The speed warning system is mandated to discourage over-speeding, a root cause of most road accidents. The system produces beep alert sound every 60 seconds when the car is running at above 80kph speed, and continuous sound above 120kph level. As per the provisions, the system cannot be overridden or turned off. Reverse sensors are another safety regulation made mandatory for all cars. These sensors get activated when the reverse gear is engaged, providing an audio warning of the objects in the vicinity of the vehicle.

As per the new crash-test standards, vehicles have to undergo tests for full-frontal impact at 48KPH, offset-frontal impact with a fixed deformable barrier at 56kph, and side-impact with a mobile deformable barrier at 50kph. As a result, most automakers in India had to re-engineer or phase out older models to comply with the new crash standards.

Additionally, pedestrian safety norms were also made mandatory for all newly launched cars from October 2018 and will be extended to include all cars from 2020.

Automakers will include various measures to enhance pedestrian's safety, one of which is to use a software-based provision. This includes installing sensors at the front of the vehicle to detect an impact. In case of an impending collision, the sensors relay information to a control unit which triggers actuators in the vehicle and lifts the bonnet by a few centimetres. This creates an air-gap between the hood and the underlying engine block, thereby reducing the extent of damage caused to the pedestrian by absorbing the impact of the collision. The pedestrian safety norms also necessitate that bonnet of a vehicle be redesigned to reduce the impact on the pedestrians in case of a collision.

However, one segment that also needs to be addressed is the large number of commercial vehicles. India's transportation and economic lifeline depends on trucks and lorries. According to the latest accident report released by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for the year 2018, National Highways which comprise of 1.94 percent of total road network, accounted for 30.2 per cent of total road accidents and 35.7 per cent of deaths in 2018. State highways which account for 2.97% of the road length accounted for 25.2 percent and 26.8 percent of accidents and deaths respectively. A total of 57,441 accidents were reported involving trucks/lorries out of which 23,868 were fatal and 51,166 people were injured. Road safety therefore for this segment becomes important. The safer they travel the safer are the goods they carry and in turn make the highways safer for themselves and other road users

The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2019 which came into effect also flags the importance of having a National Transportation Policy to 'Arrest Alarming Road Deaths'. This if implemented properly will be a big help for the drivers. Statistics shows that many accidents on the highways takes place just before dawn when the driver invariably dozes of behind the wheels. Night driving policies therefore needs to be implemented across industries and organisations need to make it a part of the policies which will ensure the transporters do not violate them just to reduce turnaround time

European countries like Sweden and Austria are considered pioneers in road safety. They are decades ahead of us specially in instilling the sense of road safety amongst their citizens. Also the fact that they rely heavily now on technology to monitor and enforce road safety, we still are trying to make it a national level agenda to be taken seriously all year round and not just advocated during the annual road safety week in January.

Globally intelligent transport systems, smart signalling, ADAS etc are now the normal while we are still focussing on the basics of road safety which are the 5Es of Road Safety - Education, Enforcement, Engineering, Environment and Emergency Care.

Indian road safety standards needs a complete overhaul. Awareness and enforcement are two major factors that can develop the safety culture in the country. Despite concrete laws and penalties levied on breaking road rules, the number of traffic accidents is increasing every day in India education should go hand in hand with enforcement as just enforcement with steep fines never worked. People should be made aware of the rules of the road and why it is important for them rather than seeing it as a subject of just abiding by law. Even European countries like Austria and Germany ensure that any breach of rules of the road means not only a financial penalty but also going back to a driving school and spending mandatory hours revisiting the curriculum. This ensures that just by paying penalty you don't get away. This acts as a deterrent and people avoid breaking rules.

Drive Smart Drive Safe- launched a nationwide campaign 'India against Road Crash' during the 1st ever National Road Safety Month from 18th of January 2021. The objective of this campaign was not only to induce behavioural shift amongst masses but to also encourage corporate's, industry associations, NGOs, and civic bodies to come together and take #SafeSpeedChallenge Championship, for this noble cause. 

The objective of the campaign is to start a sustainable chain of nationwide activities, which will not only make people aware and transform their behaviour on roads, but it will also lead to alerting and assisting drivers directly on road, saving many lives directly and training them silently while participating in a national championship.

The theme of the campaign is 'Speed Management', as it being the most critical lifesaving intervention identified during the 3rd global ministerial conference on road safety and being on the top of the Stockholm Declarations 12 point Agenda under the pillar of safe road users to achieve reduction of road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% before 2030.

The all-women teams from Amritsar  started in convoy driving style on #TrafficDistancing format to maintain the safe speed &safe distance between the vehicles and will act as a 'role-model' for all road users, all through their drive to Kanyakumari via Amritsar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Vadodra, Mumbai, Goa, Mangalore, Kozhikode/Calicut & Trivandrum. The rally will be live with speed and location tracking and will stream from an on-drive camera for all members of team challengers.  There will be live score/ leader-board with continuous video streaming from on-drive cameras for all women challengers for public voting and to kick start public debate around safe driving and about safety hazards like potholes and humps on the highways.

The rally will further motivate citizens then to join national championship across the country as popular game to learn speed management themselves, through a mobile app voice alerts. Anyone can:

- Download India Against Road Crash App to participate or register for the challenge on www.indiaagainstroadcrash.org

- Take 8 point road safety pledge 

- Receive instant participation certificate and challenge their friends &family by tagging them on social media

- Drive safely during road safety month, using the app. to slow down when alerted for any safety hazard, and

- Score #SafespeedMiles in kilometers to win the championship and take the trophy home, make his/her family and organisation proud.

In India, one of the biggest positive development has been the constitution of the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety which has been effectively directing all stakeholders on implementation of road safety standards across the country by constituting state level committees and also a group of minsters committee. The recent notification by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for establishment of the National Road Safety Board is another welcoming step which was long pending. This will help in bringing all stakeholders together instead of work being done isolation and will help effectively implement and monitor programs on road safety.

As road safety is a complex topic, we need to have a multidisciplinary approach to traffic planning and road design. A combination of legislation, enforcement of laws and education of road-users can significantly improve compliance with key safety rules, thereby reducing injuries. While strategies from developed countries can be adopted, there is also need to study the local context and implement relevant interventions and plans to improve road safety. The current rates of morbidity and mortality due to road injuries are both unacceptable and avoidable. Road safety should be high up on the political, administrative and community agenda to evoke an evolved sense of safe traffic culture among masses.

If all as citizens, government bodies, corporate and society understand the importance of road safety and take steps together we will surely make our nation a better and safer place to live in.

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