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Young World
On the road to safety
SHYAMALA MANI IYER
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According to world road statistics, India stands fourth in the world in the number of accidents. What precautions can road users adopt to ensure safety?
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Perilous pedals.
Cyclist knocked down by lorry.
16-year-old boy hit while alighting from bus.
12-year-old killed by water tanker.
Every day one reads such news items in the newspaper.
With traffic increasing in all the metropolitan cities, there is less space for pedestrians and cycles. And accidents are more frequent.
While travelling by bus young men like to stand on the footboard. This is very dangerous and is the cause of many deaths.
According to the world road statistics of the International Road Federation, India stands fourth in the world in the number of accidents after the U.S., Japan and Germany, though in fatalities it is the first followed by Pakistan.
There are three components to road safety programmes, says Mr. Ramakrishnan, former President, Society of Automotive Fitness & Environment (SAFE) — education, maintenance of roads and enforcement of the law. Educating road users to follow traffic rules, use of the road, behaviour while on roads, etc. can go a long way. For eg., children cycle to school and are distracted by their talk. This can be dangerous both for the cyclists and drivers. People renewing their licenses should be given a refresher course and tested.
Courting danger.
Maintaining roads, ensuring that signposts and intersection signals are functional, simple modification in road structure so that there are no blind spots and easily identifiable pedestrian crossings, cycle and two-wheeler lanes could be created in the busier roads, no hawking zones should be identified and no parking zones be kept strictly so — are some of the things the authorities can do to ensure road safety.
Enforcement, of course, is essential and for this traffic policemen should be trained both about traffic rules and how to enforce them. Punishment should be so stringent that even potential violators are not tempted to break rules.
But, a little precaution on your part will also go a long way. After all it is you, who are most affected. Why don't you insist that cyclists should also be asked to wear helmets.
Like everything else, road safety begins at home.
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