Lapses in Road Safety: A casual attitude to safety

Source: The post is based on the article “A casual attitude to safety” published in “The Indian Express” on 6th June 2023.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc.

Relevance: About the Lapses in Road Safety.

News: India has just witnessed its most horrific train accident in over two decades in Odisha. A bus carrying some of the injured persons from the train accident site in Balasore to a hospital had a head-on collision with a van in Bengal’s Medinipur district. This questions the issue of road safety and railway safety.

About the recent train accident and the issue of railway safety in India

What are the reasons for lapses in road safety?

There are five primary reasons for accidents — and deaths and injuries due to accidents. They are

Faulty design: Every highway, modern or old, has several well-identified “death traps”. The majority of bad accidents take place primarily because of bad design.

Poor maintenance and wear and tear: The Morbi Bridge tragedy in Gujarat is an example of poor maintenance.

Improper safety protocols and regulations: These include selling of cars that would not meet crash test regulations, poor implementation of seat belts in automobiles, etc.

Human error: This is sometimes compounded by fatigue and boredom.

Wilful flouting of safety regulations and norms: This is due to both societal attitudes as well as lack of law enforcement.

Consumer and citizen safety has to be the priority for successive governments. Indian citizens should hold the authorities responsible for poor safety and quality enforcement.