INDIA ACCOUNTS FOR 10 PER CENT OF GLOBAL ROAD ACCIDENT DEATHS WITH ABOUT 1.50 LAKH FATALITIES ANNUALLY , HIGHEST IN THE WORLD.

More than 1.25 million people die world wide as result of road traffic accidents and about 1,50,785 died in India during the year 2016 due to road traffic crashes leaving families , friends and well wishers traumatised and made to bear emotional and financial burdens, in addition to leaving gravely injured or permanently disabled survivors.

“The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) was initiated by the road traffic victims in 1993 and is dedicated to remembering all those killed and injured on the worlds roads and all those affected by their death or serious injury/permanent disability. The United Nations had endorsed it in the year 2005 as a global day, making it a major advocacy day for road traffic injury prevention.” said Mr K K Kapila, Chairman, Geneva based International Road Federation,(IRF) a global body pursuing the mission of safe roads and safe road mobility.

“The UN believes that a day of remembrance is a way to draw attention to the consequences and economic loss on account of road traffic crashes and to put in place measures that can be taken to prevent them. Its aim is to remind governments and individual members of the society of their responsibility to make the roads safer. Only then will the United Nations goals under the ‘UN Decade of Action’ envisaging a target of reducing road accident deaths world wide by 50 Per Cent by the year 2020 be achieved.” said Mr Kapila.

“India has signed many International agreements on traffic and road safety issues including United Nation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety across the world. India is also signatory to recently adopted ‘The Brasilia Declaration’ by various countries, which recommends the actions that must be taken in order to reach the goals of the Decade and the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals. But the number of fatal road accidents in India are on constant increase. “said Mr Kapila.

“ More than 10% of the world’s road deaths take place on India’s killer roads — which account for less than 3% of the world’s vehicles and many road accidents go unreported and unaccounted for. What is more worrying is the sharp and continued rise in road fatalities over the past decade. Lakhs of fatalities and serious injuries on Indian roads could have been saved if recommended road safety actions are adopted and adhered to by the concerned stakeholders” added Mr Kapila.

“Road accidents and resultant deaths and injuries are a national problem that must be addressed immediately as the damage caused is enormous in terms of lives and injuries sustained on victims and the huge cost to treat over 5,00,000 who get injured other than deaths. ” he added.