Goverment emphasized on driving hours for truck drivers
- Shri Nitin Gadkari has emphasized deciding driving hours for truck drivers of commercial vehicles, similar to pilots, to reduce fatigue-induced road accidents.
- In a National Road Safety Council (NRSC) Meeting with the Non-Official Co-Opted Individual Members, he directed officers to work on a policy to include On-Board Sleep Detection Sensors in Commercial Vehicles, at par with European standards.
Road accidents in India:
- India was in first place in terms of the number of road crash deaths and injuries in the world. India has just 1% of the world’s vehicles but accounts for 11% of all road crash deaths.
- Further, India is also witnessing 53 road crashes every hour, killing 1 person every 4 minutes.
- India has seen around 4.5 lakh road accidents in the past year.
- It resulted in at least 1.5 lakh deaths over the past few years.
Socio-Economic Impact of Road accidents in India:
- More loss to poor families: The risk of a victim undergoing disability after a crash is 2 times higher among poor families.
- Accidents result in a decline of 75% of the total household income among low-income groups. Whereas, the decline among high-income groups is only 54%. It underlines poor access to insurance schemes among the less privileged.
- Impact on women: About 40% of women reported a change in their working patterns post-accident. While around 11% reported taking up extra work to deal with the financial crisis.
- The reasons for road accidents in India can be categorized broadly into four categories.
- human error,
- road environment and
- vehicular condition
- post accidental care-related issues.