ROAD SAFETY – TIME FOR ACTION

Divya Lalwani, S. K. Swarnkar, Dr. Alok Khunteta, Dr. M. K. Gupta$

LBS College of Pharmacy, Tilak Nagar, Jaipur

$Jaipur College of Pharmacy, Jaipur

INTRODUCTION

Globalization has brought India into the forefront of progress. This development has provided a substantial economic stimulus to enhance progress across India which includes enabling people to afford cars and increase their movement on the roads. Various multinational companies including motor vehicle manufacturers have created establishments in India. The increased usage of the cars has enhanced the need for developing the infrastructure where these motor vehicles can move safely. Developing safe roads which connect destinations and cities is a key foundation to infrastructural development in a country where the population is more than 1 billion. This commentary reviews various aspects of road safety in heavily populated and developing India where motor vehicle trauma is a modern epidemic.

The Global Road Safety (GRSF) is a global partnership program established in 2006. The Global road safety has three main objectives– awareness, underfunded & public health crisis. Ninety percent of death on roads occurs in low and middle income countries. The GRSF is dedicated to vital issues of road safety can improve road safety   and implementing affordable road safety programs.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009, in its first Global Status Report on Road Safety, identified road accidents as the “biggest killers” across the world. The report says about 1.2 million people die and 50 million get affected in road accidents globally every year. A decade of Action for Road Safety (2011-2020) has been adopted with a goal to reduce the fatalities from road accidents by 50 percent.

In order to reduce the number of accidents, the Government is identifying major accident “Black Spots” on the roads. An accident Black Spot is a stretch of road where the level of risk of accidents is higher than the surrounding areas. Crashes tend to be concentrated at these relatively high-risk locations. The data on black spots are now required to be reported by the states/UTs to the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways.  An analysis of these spots will help identify the risk factor and put corrective safety measures in place. Details of 726 black spots have been compiled from across the country. Out of these, about 190 spots have already been analyzed and corrective measures have been put in place at these spots.

 

Road safety is for public good. The Road Safety Policy and the proposed Act, both put emphasis on enhancing public awareness and educate ppeople about their roles in making the road travel safe. Keeping this in mind, every year in January, ‘Road Safety Week’ is organised for sensitisation of various stakeholders. The aim of this campaign is to highlight the need of safe road travel by applying just simple rules.

Progress on road safety is frequently hindered by ignorance about the social and economic costs of road crashes. The Road safety grants programs are managed by global road safety partnership focuses on improving road safety regulations and standards.

The National road safety policy statements has initiated steps to improve safety on roads-

  1. Raise awareness about issue related road safety.
  2. Launch a road safety information databases.
  3. Online driving license-Exams are conducted for awaring young people.
  4. Safer road infrastructure.

Various programs are necessary in future in present and future like the use of helmet or seat belts medical checkup camps ,driving training workshops and competitive events at educational institutions are important for road travelers ,drivers &school children ,students &youth .Build a safety culture for sustainable supply chain ,safety is not a slogan .It is a way of life, walk for road safety ,stay alive ,Don’t drink and drive.

Road Safety A mission, Not intermission: Future safe roads, safe speeds, safe vehicles safe people- Towards Zero death &severe injury through a safe system. Innovation in vehicle technology such as improving braking system, lane keep assist & airbags, helmets & flexible road barriers.

The main challenge of road safety is to bring about a change in road user behaviour. Road users should learn to consider the road as a shared public space rather than as an area given over to violence. Common respect for other road users is the basis for and key message of this practical road safety guide. Solutions do exist and we have a moral obligation to make every effort to apply them, especially in view of the fact that investments in road safety improvement benefit society at large. We hope that this practical guide will help to make people more aware that road crashes are a global scourge and that it will encourage the Red Cross Red Crescent to make an even greater effort to improve the situation in their own country.

Understanding road safety and the measures needed

All countries which have managed to reverse sustainably the rising trend of road casualties in the past 30 years have one thing in common: political awareness. Unless policy-makers are won over to the issue of road safety, little can be done.

The new thinking about road safety outlined in the World report can be summarized as follows:

  • Crashes are not an inevitable consequence of economic growth and they create a considerable economic burden to society (in terms of lives and money lost).
  • Road crash injury is largely preventable and predictable; it is a human-made problem amenable to rational analysis and countermeasures.
  • Tested, technically simple remedies are available, which can produce considerable returns for a relatively small investment.

The growing political awareness in high-income countries led rapidly to the establishment of special road safety departments, which could put forward action plans coordinated and funded by multiple relevant sectors. Road crashes often result from a series of root causes: the vehicle (a factor in 5 to 10 per cent of crashes), road infrastructure (to which 10 to 20 per cent of crashes may be attributed) and road user behaviour (which is responsible at least in part for some 80 to 90 per cent of road crashes).

It is important to consider the vehicle/the road/the user as a system. The interactions between users and the physical elements are critical. Road and vehicle design must allow for human errors.

PHASE HUMAN VEHICLE AND EQUIPEMENT ENVIROMENT
Pre-crash Crash

prevention

 

Information

Attitudes

Impairment

Police enforcement

 

Roadworthiness

Lighting

Braking

Handling

Speed management

 

Road design and road layout

Speed limits

Pedestrian facilities

 

Crash Injury prevention

during the crash

 

Use of restraints

Impairment

 

Seat belts

Occupant restraints

Other safety devices

Crash-protective design

 

Crash-protective roadside objects
Post-crash

 

Life sustaining First-aid skill

Access to medics

 

Ease of access

Fire risk

 

Rescue facilities

Congestion

 

 

The vehicle

Modern vehicles are considerably safer than older models. Manufacturers tend to agree that it will take time for future technological breakthroughs to make more advanced safety improvements. Technical safety standards and annual vehicle testing are compulsory in high-income countries.

In contrast, low- and middle-income countries often have a substandard vehicle fleet, which exacerbate the road safety problem. This is particularly true for commercial vehicles such as taxis, buses and trucks, which account on average for 50 per cent of all vehicles in those countries. Effective and independent technical testing needs to be introduced as soon as possible in particular for commercial fleets. Testing must be strict where the vital safety functions of vehicles are concerned, such as braking, shocks and lighting.

Another matter of concern in low- and middle-income countries is the overloading of commercial vehicles transporting goods or passengers (or both at once, as is often the case). It is essential to have regulations establishing maximum loads and that regular checks take place. Greater improvement of the public and commercial transport sector is one of the best ways of avoiding such overloading. Although the standard of a vehicle’s safety features is a critical part of the road safety system, substandard vehicles are still only the third main cause of road crashes. Road infrastructure is second.

The road infrastructure

The road infrastructure, considered as a whole (including road surface, road signs and design), is a significant safety factor. Road designs should recognize that humans make mistakes and try to minimize the consequences of human error. It has been shown that some low-cost infrastructure improvements can substantially reduce the occurrence of road crashes and their severity.

 Examples of improvements include-

The separation of different types of traffic, better road markings and road signs, safer paths for pedestrians and two-wheelers, the construction of sidewalks or pavements and more visible pedestrian crossings, and slower  traffic speeds (with the use of road humps, rumble strips and roundabouts).On existing roads, these improvements should first be made at high-risk spots, where many crashes occur, especially at the entry and exit of built-up areas and areas of high activity (such as markets and schools).

The same improvements should be incorporated in the design of new roads, which may otherwise become a source of crashes in the future. It is essential that road construction budgets for future roads include a provision for safety, which is by no means the case everywhere in the world. Practical technical guides are already available. Unsafe road infrastructure is a critical root cause of road crashes but it is by no means the main cause.

Human behaviour

The behaviour of road users is, in fact, the main cause of road crashes and road crash injury and death. Among the many risk factors involved in causing road crashes or increasing injury severity, the four most common are:

  1. the failure to wear seat belts
  2. the failure to wear crash helmets
  3. driving at excessive or unsuitable speeds; and
  4. driving under the influence of alcohol.

Each of these primary risk factors is involved in 30 to 50 per cent of fatal or disabling crashes worldwide, irrespective of the country. Countries which have introduced targeted action plans to combat at least one of the above risk factors have succeeded in reducing road crash fatalities by 20 to 40 per cent within a few years, even when the trend was previously rising steeply.

Of course, there are other substantial risk factors, such as driver fatigue (which affects long-distance commercial transport drivers in particular), the use of mobile telephones, driving under the influence of drugs, failure to observe safety distances and a lack of visual aids for drivers. None of these risk factors should be overlooked.

There are also the basic rules of the Highway Code, which users should comply with, such as the rules for giving way, overtaking, traffic lights and no-entry signs. For brevity and greatest impact, we have deliberately concentrated in this report on the four major risk factors, which are the cause of most road deaths.

Wearing seat belts can reduce the risk of death or serious injury by 50 per cent in the event of a crash. This is the most effective priority measure for injury reduction and the easiest to implement to protect vehicle occupants in a road crash. It is a simple, easy gesture that should become a habit. All modern vehicles are equipped with a standardized belt system so that users do not need to pay separately for seat-belt installation. Checking the use of seat belts is easy and requires no special equipment or training for traffic police officers. It is advisable to proceed in stages, beginning with the compulsory use of seat belts in the front of the vehicle, then in the rear seats, including the use of special re-straints for children. It should be noted that air bags are not a substitute for seat restraints and the two measures must be used together.

Changing the behaviour of road users

Road user behaviour may be changed in various ways. There are short-term measures, which can be introduced immediately, and long-term measures, which are no less important but take more time both to implement and to bring about the desired results. One of the short-term measures that can be taken is to launch large-scale information campaigns highlighting the facts, enforcement and penalties related to the major risk factors noted above. It is generally the case that the greatest impact is made by a combination of information campaigns and enforcement. In the longer term, road safety education should be included as a part of the school curriculum and the quality of teaching at driving schools should be evaluated and improved where necessary.

Organizing road safety

The key organizations influencing policy development

 

 

 

CONCLUSION-

Training young road users

Learning road safety sense starts very young and can begin at home with their parents and also, of course, at school. Young people pay the heaviest price on the road. Half of the world’s population is under 25 years of age and most young people travel by foot or use two-wheelers. They are therefore exposed to the risk of crashes involving larger and faster moving vehicles. In addition, young people are more prone to take risks on the road, whether as pedestrians or as drivers. An effort must be made to train young people in better road use by making available courses in the theory and practice of road user behaviour as part of the school curriculum. Becoming familiar with the main road signs, taking care when crossing the road and being aware of and anticipating risks are part of the ABC of road use they must acquire.

Numerous road safety education programmes exist and are taught in many countries and in practically all languages. There is therefore no need to invent new materials. Governments should exchange experiences on this issue. Regional and sub-regional economic communities already have a system of institutional cooperation that allows for such exchanges. As in the case of road safety campaigns for the general public, a number of Internet sites also offer examples of school programmes which can be used or which can provide a basis for starting a programme.

Experience shows that school road safety programmes are most effective when parents and traffic police forces are involved and when infrastructure and supervision measures are introduced in the environment around the schools to warn and protect pupils from the traffic (such as road signs, sleeping policemen or road bumps and adult supervision of pedestrian crossings).

Emergency services need improving

Emergency services consist of a sequence of lifesaving actions that follow a specific sequence: crash alert, first aid, transport and admission to the closest medical care. Action must be taken in the minutes following a crash. It is a race against time. This requires resources. If one of the links is missing, the sequence will be broken and emergency aid will not be correctly administered.

In the great majority of the world’s countries and despite the dedication of emergency medical staff, emergency services do not work properly, due to faulty systems.

A specific emergency number should exist, which is free of charge and well known by the public that connects the caller directly with the emergency services. An easily and rapidly accessible telephone line must also be available. This is far from the case everywhere, despite the widespread use of cell phones.

 

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