SaveLIFE Foundation builds recommendations for stringent road safety in India

Welcoming last month's announcement by Ministry of Road Transport & Highways to replace the archaic Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 with a stronger Road Safety law, SaveLIFE Foundation, a road safety think-tank has presented to the government detailed recommendations for building a comprehensive legislative framework for road safety in India. The initiative comes exactly a month after Union Minister Shri Gopinath Munde passed away in a car crash in Delhi.

A complete overhaul of the RTO system, professionally managed and centralized driver's licensing regime, stringent punishment for drunk-driving, over-speeding and rash-driving, provisions for protection of children, cyclists and pedestrians on the road, a standardized and scientific approach to crash investigation, fixing accountability for faulty road design and engineering, and establishment of a lead agency for road safety are some of the consensus-based recommendations collected through a series of high-level consultation meetings involving experts and senior decision-makers from the Central Government, 9 State Governments, auto industry, insurance industry, NGOs, leading academic institutions such as IITs and IISc, and international institutions such as World Bank and Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP). (Read: How to provide first-aid in a road-traffic accident)

Commenting on the proposition of a graduated driver licensing system, Arnab Bandyopadhyay, Road Safety expert from the World Bank and one of the people involved in building the recommendations stated, 'The graduated licensing system allows drivers to move from lower risk to higher risk situations gradually as their driving experience and maturity increases'. Agreeing with Mr. Bandyopadhyay, Piyush Tewari, Founder & CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation added, 'A comprehensive and all-encompassing law is the need of the hour but equally important is to establish a robust mechanism for enforcement of the law. Given the involvement of multiple stakeholders in implementing road safety measures, it is imperative that a lead agency for road safety be established through the new Act and given full authority to bring leadership and cohesiveness into the actions of the multiple agencies involved'. (Read: Think before you drink alcohol kills six people every minute!)

In the past decade over 11 lakh people have died in road accidents in India and over 55 lakh have been left seriously injured or permanently disabled. According to the Planning Commission of India the country suffers an astounding loss of 3% of GDP every year due to road accidents alone. Introducing a stronger law to protect road-users is clearly the need of the hour and the beginning of a long and arduous journey to save millions of innocent lives over the next decade. (Read: Road accidents first aid, emergency treatment and complications)

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