Maharashtra will soon introduce a new policy to reduce fatalities resulting from road accidents. The new state Road Safety Policy will be introduced as part of the Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which has tasked Maharashtra with bringing road fatalities down to 25% of the current 13,000 deaths reported annually, said officials.
Unsafe roads
“Maharashtra has the dubious distinction of having some of the most unsafe roads in the country. Going beyond the Brasilia Declaration, we want to reduce the fatalities by 75% or more by 2030,” said a senior official of the state Transport Department.
Under the new policy, the State will establish a data driven system for collection and analysis of road traffic crashes. The system will also include enforcement components such as e-challans and a penalty points system tied to insurance and validity of driving license. “Recommendations from the analysis will be speedily acted upon,” said an official.
Maharashtra will also improve it’s post-crash trauma care by ensuring a faster response time and availability of trained paramedics along the National and State highway network, officials said.
According to the Road Accidents in India-2017 report prepared by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, four cities — Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur — feature in the top 50. In Mumbai, 3,160 accidents occurred in 2017, of which 467 were fatal and 2,603 were injury accidents. A total of 490 people died in these accidents while 3,287 were injured.
In Pune, of the 1,508 accidents, 360 were fatal and 966 were injury accidents.
Consider finer aspects
Reacting to the policy measures, road safety experts point out that the Government must take finer aspects such as the speed of the vehicle, width of roads, and designs into consideration this time. Some of the measures listed in the new policy have already been implemented in urban pockets but are not bearing fruits as expected, experts said.
Correct road designs
“All measures being taken are welcome as far as enforcement is concerned. But enforcement alone does not result in reduction in fatalities and injuries as our roads too are not designed with pedestrians in mind,” said Sudhir Badami, a transportation expert and an IIT-Bombay graduate in civil and structural engineering.
