{"id":221073,"date":"2023-01-04T20:40:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T15:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=221073"},"modified":"2023-01-04T20:40:49","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T15:10:49","slug":"for-great-road-safety-india-needs-a-change-in-mindset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/for-great-road-safety-india-needs-a-change-in-mindset\/","title":{"rendered":"For great road safety, India needs a change in mindset"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cFor great road safety, India needs a change in mindset\u201d <\/strong>published in<strong> The Indian Express <\/strong>on <strong>4th January 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Government policies and interventions<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; The article explains the issue of road safety in India.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What are the reasons behind increasing road accidents in India?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p><strong>Human error <\/strong>on the roads is the single-largest factor responsible. There are frequent violations of lane driving, speed limits and traffic signals and at-will parking on highways.<\/p>\n<p>There is <strong>administrative and political apathy<\/strong> toward road safety. Road users are lacking the understanding of the basic traffic rules and road signage.<\/p>\n<p>There is <strong>easier access<\/strong> to driving licences without a meaningful ground scrutiny of skills.<\/p>\n<p>In case of a serious road crash, charges are framed against the erring drivers. They are not framed against the road-safety public officials for <strong>non-performance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>At the macro level, various institutions of road safety are engaged in<strong> routine paperwork<\/strong> and lack <strong>accountability<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>What is the way forward for road safety in India?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>The <strong>enforcement of traffic norms<\/strong> is the key to road safety. The priority goal should be to significantly reduce the rising number of road crashes.<\/p>\n<p>There is a need for <strong>regular and professional enforcement of rules<\/strong>. <strong>Swift and innovative solutions<\/strong> by the administration could help in evolving a healthy safe-road culture.<\/p>\n<p>A <strong>new Motor Vehicles Act<\/strong> is required. Along with it, <strong>decentralised federal structure<\/strong> and the <strong>Supreme Court committee on road safety<\/strong> and its <strong>regular monitoring<\/strong> of the related issues is key to road safety. A <strong>specific regime<\/strong> whereby road safety authorities are given clear targets for reducing road crashes over a defined period should be priority.<\/p>\n<p>Parts of major roads and highways should be set up as <strong>\u201cideal\u201d road safety zones<\/strong>. These zones will promote locally s<strong>uitable, comprehensive safe road practices<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>To begin with, identify the two worst roads in a specific area:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Notify each identified road as a <strong>Zone of Excellence<\/strong> in road safety<\/li>\n<li>Provide road<strong> written instructions<\/strong> on road-surface and road signage<\/li>\n<li>Take care to provide lanes for emergency vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians etc, as feasible<\/li>\n<li>Ensure adherence to basic traffic rules. Create <strong>multiple checkpoints every<\/strong> 2-4 kms. Each checkpoint should be supported by road safety volunteers in addition to police<\/li>\n<li>Use tech aids, judiciously combined with <strong>manual interventions and volunteers<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Supplement enforcement with road safety <strong>awareness measures<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Station ambulances and lift cranes for swift response to accidents<\/li>\n<li>Make reliable arrangements with <strong>hospitals and trauma centres<\/strong> through formal MoUs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>administrative structure<\/strong> for the implementation of road safety can be set up in <strong>three tiers<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tier 1<\/strong> would be the <strong>Managing Group<\/strong>. It would look after <strong>day-to-day operations<\/strong> and would be <strong>autonomous and financially empowered<\/strong>. It will have representatives from the police, transport and health sectors, the public works department and public representatives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tier 2<\/strong> would have <strong>district level monitoring<\/strong>. It would also ensure adherence to targets.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tier 3<\/strong> would have top management and control, represented at the level of the Union or state government. At this level, a <strong>dynamic road-safety ecosystem<\/strong> would be developed. Existing <strong>road safety institutions<\/strong> would either be dismantled or rejuvenated. There would be monthly reviews, with <strong>directions, accountability and disciplinary action<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cFor great road safety, India needs a change in mindset\u201d published in The Indian Express on 4th January 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Government policies and interventions News&#8211; The article explains the issue of road safety in India. What are the reasons behind increasing road accidents in India? Human&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/for-great-road-safety-india-needs-a-change-in-mindset\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">For great road safety, India needs a change in mindset<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-221073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221073\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}