Road Accident in India-2018

Karnataka has been ranked 1 for highest number of accidents and deaths being occurred in open
area amounting to a total of 34476 & 9624 respectively. Also, we are ranked 2 for number of
accidents and deaths occurred in straight sections of roads totalling to 33120 & 8974 respectively.
This is an alarming information which needs to be assessed properly to address the issues pertaining
to open area and straight sections of roads causing the accidents and deaths. Based on the triple ‘E’
theory, ‘Education-Engineering-Enforcement’, authorities are working on education part in issueing
license, engineering is being taken care by the authorities while getting the facilities designed and
executed. Final is the enforcement which is an essential component required for road users to follow
the guidelines given by the facility provider for safe mobility.

It has been observed from the compiled data on the road accidents that, more number of accidents
are being reported in open areas, staight sections, sunny/clear weather, involving cars/jeeps/ van/
taxi category of vehicles with age less than 5 years, involving 25-35 years of age group people
holding permanent licenses travelling on rural highway between 18-21 hours of the day. By looking
at the compiled data, it seems that, enforcement is an area which needs to be strengthened to make
the straight sections in open area safer for road users. By looking at the present traffic scenario in
India, road users are getting frustrated while driving inside the urban boundaries due to continued
jams thus reduced speeds. As soon as they enter into a straight section in open area, they may tend
to overspeed resulting in increased accidents. To avoid this kind of accidents, implimentation of
strict rules as per the facility provider is a must. This is possible only by the enforcement department
like police and traffic police by having the cameras installed at unsafe sections at regular intervals
with information signs mentioning that they are under surveillance. These kind of arrangements will
make the road user to mend his driving to keep him safe.

Other scenarios, the sunny/clear weather is contradicting the claim of highest number of accidents
and deaths occuring between 18-21 hours of the day. This may again need some clarity in reporting
as people might have entered that, the day was sunny/clear but accident occurred during 18-21
hours on that day. By this observation, it can be ascertained that, clear/sunny weather during the
day has less influence when compared to the timing of the accident. This inference doesnot help in
understanding the accident scenario in conjunction with both the observations.

During the discussion, it was emphasised to collect other details like, road details which need to be
incorporated in the FIR and made available for the government bodies to address the issues by
prioritizing the location/section (particular NH/SH) and measures to be provided to curb the number
of accidents and deaths. Below are the details which would be helpful in identifying the particular
stretch/section of category of road to be taken for pilot study before applying the measures for
similar locations throughout the state.

1. NH/SH numbers
Mentioning the NH/SH numbering along with chainage will help the government
department to identify the possible location/stretch/section and particular road among the
available lot of these roads.
2. Pavement and condition details
Pavement details like, 1/2/4/6 lane configuration along with the details of distress being
shown by the pavement at that location which is visble to the person visiting the site during
collection of initial information for FIR, supported with few photographs would help to even
narrowdown the causes for the behaviour of road user during the accident.
3. And other road side hazards details
Any road side hazards present in the accident location which are not common for any road
cross section for example: bigger trees, water tanks, culvert parapet, high tension wire
posts, abandoned concrete pipes, wooden logs, open reinforcements of any partially
completed structures, deeper ditches, open wells, etc exposed to live traffic.

Above discussed data would enable the government authorities in resolution of the safety issues
after a thorough study on such major unsafe locations by considering them as pilot projects. The
before and after studies of such locations will help to refine the measures executed at such locations
to make them more efficient before applying them on other locations.

Similar projects are being taken up by PRAMC in the state of Karnataka from past several years.
Black spots are being identified from the district road safety authorities headed by district
commissioner. Certified Road Safety Engineers & Auditors are assigned with such identified
blackspots to carryout the audit of those locations to comeup with effective measures to make the
location safer for road users. Using these detailed project reports, measures were executed at such
locations using eligible contractors. By employing able educational institutions, post implementation
studies were being carried out to assess the effectiveness of the implemented measures to remove
the black spot. This kind of an end to end study is necessory to refine the entire process as well as
the measures provided before getting into mass implementation.