About 25% of the road accidents in the National Capital Region were on account of faulty road engineering and environment, according to a study conducted by a road safety education body, the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE).
New Delhi: An estimated 436 million Road Traffic Violations (RTV) are committed by motorised traffic every day in the National Capital. About 25% of them were on account of faulty road engineering and environment, according to a study conducted by a road safety education body, the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE).
“The Traffic police in Delhi and other parts of National Capital Region and other parts of the country is focusing and challanning on the basis of administrative violations like not having Driving license, Pollution Control certificate and not carrying other related devices while the focus should be on moving violations .What the traffic police is enforcing today is an easy approach rather than regulating traffic and checking moving traffic violations,” Rohit Baluja , President, IRTE, said in a lecture on ‘Traffic Management and presenting Case Study of NCT Delhi’, organised by the International Road Federation (IRF).
“In 2017, the Supreme Court appointed committee on road safety directed police departments across India to link speeding, red light jumping, mobile phone usage, wrong side driving in the category of dangerous driving and enhance fines. Delhi Traffic police took the directions in right earnest resulting in collection of traffic fines reaching Rs 64.8 crore in the year 2017 and road accident fatalities reaching 1584. In the year 2021 Delhi Traffic police collected fines of about Rs 493 crore but fatal road accident deaths went up to 1230. The decrease in fatal road accidents was due to lockdown during COVID pandemic. Thus, bursting the myth that higher fines will help reduce fatal road accidents. The other factors of road engineering should also be provided,” he added.
“Today the focus of improving road safety is directed to implementation of legislation without realising road and traffic engineering is a rightful requirement of driving , the police needs to be given basic training to understand elements of traffic violations, The drivers need to be aware of codes of practice of traffic control devices and driving regulations. enforcement in such conditions will become handicapped unless overall corrective measures are undertaken,” Baluja said.
K K Kapila , President Emeritus, International Road Federation (IRF), told the seminar that, “India accounts for more than 11% of total global road accidents and is signatory to the UN declaration to reduce 50% road accidents by the year 2030 Union Ministry of road transport and highways has reduced the target to the year 2025 . International Road Federation (IRF) as part of its effort to reduce road accident deaths is focusing on E’s of road safety including Engineering, Vehicle Engineering , Education, enforcement and Emergency care.”
“In India drivers take road signs for granted but at most of the places in Delhi it is hidden, bungled, missing or just plain wrong. Simple road engineering measures like provision of appropriate road markings and traffic signs, and minor layout changes in the road junctions are proven measures which significantly reduces road accidents,” he added.