NEW DELHI: While most countries design their road transport systems for success, India needs to design these to mitigate failures, “given our processes and the way we approach things”, a top govt official said on Sunday.
Speaking at a conference on road safety at Bharat Mobility Expo, Union road transport and highways secretary V Umashankar highlighted the legacy issues and the difficulty of changing the behaviour of all road users.
“See, most countries design their road transport systems for success. But we have to design them for (mitigating) failures, given our processes and the way we approach things. Many things we take lightly, and some seriously. Take the example of wearing a helmet. Does it need to be told that a helmet protects you on the road?” he said.
The secretary pointed out how nearly 44% of the fatalities in road crashes are two-wheeler occupants, followed by pedestrians (20%). In 2023, the number of persons killed in road crashes touched an all time high of 1.7 lakh. He said there is need to investigate each fatal road crash at the local level and take measures rather than going on an “anecdotal way” and this must address road, vehicle and behaviour (RVB) issues.
Sanjay Bandopadhyay, member of SC committee on Road Safety, also said interventions should be made only after finding the exact causes of crashes by conducting proper investigations.
Umashankar said the number of crashes and fatalities have increased despite now there are wider and better roads, safer and better quality vehicles with 5-star safety rating because of a combination of factors.
He cited the recent fatal crash in Jaipur involving an LPG tanker and another truck on NH-48 as an example of how multiple factors led to the tragic incident as a case study.
