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TRIPP

TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH AND INJURY PREVENTION PROGRAMME

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DELH I

WHO COLLABORATING CENTRE

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA

STATUS REPORT

2015

Dinesh Mohan, Geetam Tiwari and Kavi Bhalla

Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Hauz Khas, New Delhi-110016

http://tripp.iitd.ernet.in/

Road Safety in India

Status Report

Dinesh Mohan

Geetam Tiwari

Kavi Bhalla

Transportation Research & Injury Prevention Programme

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

2015

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT © TRIPP

WHO COLLABORATING VOLVO RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION (VREF) CENTRE CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

© Transportation Research & Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP) Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Transportation Research & Injury Prevention Programme – Road Safety in India Status Report (2015)

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016 www.iitd.ac.in/-tripp

Contents may be reproduced with attribution to TRIPP.

Table of Contents

Road Safety in India .......................................................................................................... 1

Status Report ................................................................................................................... 1

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1

National road traffic injury fatality rate ..................................................................................... 1

Vehicle population .................................................................................................................... 1

Road traffic Crash and injury data – national level ..................................................................... 3

Recording of crashes ............................................................................................................................ 3

Reporting of crash data and analysis ................................................................................................... 4

International Comparison .......................................................................................................... 8

Data used in this report ........................................................................................................... 10

Injury and fatality data ...................................................................................................................... 10

Data from NCRB and MoRTH reports ................................................................................................ 12

Summary ................................................................................................................................. 13

2. Analysis of national data ............................................................................................. 17

National fatality rates .............................................................................................................. 17

Modal share of RTI fatalities .................................................................................................... 18

Age and sex distribution .......................................................................................................... 19

State wise analysis .................................................................................................................. 20

Summary ................................................................................................................................. 23

3. Urban safety ............................................................................................................... 25

City data .................................................................................................................................. 25

Million-plus cities ............................................................................................................................... 25

Details for selected cities ......................................................................................................... 30

Modal share of RTI fatalities .............................................................................................................. 30

Road user victim type and impacting vehicle/object ........................................................................ 31

Road traffic fatalities by type of road user and time of crash ........................................................... 32

Age of victims .................................................................................................................................... 33

Road user risk analysis ....................................................................................................................... 33

Conclusions from detailed city studies .............................................................................................. 35

Summary ................................................................................................................................. 35

4. Intercity highways ...................................................................................................... 37

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 37

Traffic crashes on Indian Highways .......................................................................................... 37

Crash Patterns ......................................................................................................................... 38

Other studies ........................................................................................................................... 40

Summary ................................................................................................................................. 41

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5. Status of research in road safety ................................................................................. 43

Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 43

Systematic review of Indian research reports .......................................................................... 44

Results ............................................................................................................................................... 45

Summary ................................................................................................................................. 45

6. Way forward ............................................................................................................... 69

INTERNATIONAL KNOWLEDGE BASE FOR CONTROL OF ROAD TRAFFIC INJURIES ..................... 69

Results of systematic reviews ............................................................................................................ 69

THE WAY FORWARD ................................................................................................................ 72

Practice points ................................................................................................................................... 72

Institutional arrangements ................................................................................................................ 73

National Data Base and Statistical Analysis Systems ......................................................................... 76

Establish safety departments within operating agencies .................................................................. 76

Fund establishment of multidisciplinary safety research centres at academic institutions. ............. 76

References ..................................................................................................................... 79

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1. Introduction

NATIONAL ROAD TRAFFIC INJURY FATALITY RATE

According to official statistics 141,526 persons were killed and 477,731 injured in road traffic

crashes in India in 2014 (NCRB, 2015). However, this is probably an underestimate, as not all injuries are

reported to the police (Gururaj, G., 2006, Mohan, D. et al., 2009). The actual numbers of injuries

requiring hospital visits may be 2,000,000-3,000,000 persons. The basis for these estimates is given in

later section. The situation in India is worsening and road traffic injuries (RTI) have been increasing over

the past twenty years (Figure 1). This may be partly due to the increase in number of vehicles on the

road but mainly due to the absence of coordinated evidence-based policy to control the problem. These

data show that the number of fatalities has continued to increase at about seven per cent a year over

the past decade except over the last couple of years.

VEHICLE POPULATION

Figure 2 shows the growth of personal motor vehicles registered in India by year according to

official data (Transport Research Wing, 2014). The official registration data over represent the number

of vehicles in actual operation because vehicles that go off the road due to age or other reasons do not

get removed from the records. This is because personal vehicle owners pay a lifetime tax when they buy

a car and do not de-register their vehicles when they junk them.

Figure 1. Road traffic deaths in India 1970 though 2014 (Source: NCRB).

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The actual number of personal vehicles on the road is estimated to be 50%-55% of those on the

records (Expert Committee on Auto Fuel Policy, 2002, Goel, R. et al., 2015, Mohan, D. et al., 2014). The

number of cars and motorised two-wheelers (MTW) registered in 2012 was 21.6 and 115.4 million

respectively. If we assume that 55% of them were

actually on the road, then the actual number of

cars and MTWs present on the roads would be 10.6

and 57.7 million respectively, and total ownership 6

per 100 persons in 2012. Table 1 shows the

personal vehicle ownership and official road traffic

fatality rates per 100 population for ten countries

including India (W.H.O., 2015). This table shows

eight countries with much higher vehicle ownership

rates than India but lower RTI fatality rates. This

indicates that increase in vehicle ownership need

not be a reason for increase in fatality rates.

Table 1. Personal vehicle ownership and

official road traffic fatality rates

per 100 population (Source : W.H.O.,

2015)

* Vehicle ownership rate adjusted for

number of actual vehicles on road. See

text.

Figure 2. Cars and MTW registered in India by year (Source: Transport Research

Wing 2014).

Note: Actual numbers on the road would be considerably less, see text.

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ROAD TRAFFIC CRASH AND INJURY DATA – NATIONAL LEVEL

Recording of crashes

As in most countries, traffic police are the source of official government statistics related with road

traffic injuries in India. The main sources of traffic crash data at the national level are the annual reports

published by the National Crime Record Bureau (Ministry of Home Affairs) and the annual publication of

the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) titled Road Accidents In India. The basic

information for both these reports comes from all the police stations in the country based on the cases

reported to them. A brief description of the process through which statistics are compiled at the

national level is as follows. When the occurrence of a traffic crash is brought to the notice of a police

station (by anyone involved in the crash; anyone who knows about the crash; or a police officer who

comes to know about the crash) the information reported is recorded in a First Information Report

(FIR). This sets the process of ‘criminal justice’ in motion and the police take up investigation of the case.

After an FIR has been filed the contents of the FIR cannot be changed except by a ruling from the High

Court or the Supreme Court of India. After the investigation is complete a case file is prepared which

records the details of the crash as determined by the police department (which need not necessarily

tally with those in the FIR) and the ‘offending party’ (as determined by the investigation) is charged with

offences under provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Motor Vehicles Act of India 1988 (Ministry of

Road Transport and Highways, 1988). Some of the relevant provisions are:

Indian Penal Code

•

Section 279. Rash driving or riding on a public way.

•

Section 304A. Causing death by negligence.

•

Section 336. Act endangering life or personal safety of others.

•

Section 337. Causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others.

•

Section 338. Causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others.

Motor Vehicles Act

•

Section 185. Driving by a drunken person or by a person under the influence of drugs.

•

Section 184. Driving dangerously.

The above provisions are the deciding factor in how a police officer has to assign blame to one of

the participants in a crash (usually one of the drivers). This is an important issue, as the ‘cause’ of the

crash has to be recorded as a ‘fault’ of a driver under one or more of the above provisions in most

cases. This procedure ensures that 80% or more of the cases get attributed to ‘human error’ and there is

no place for understanding crashes as a result of a host of factors including vehicle, road and

infrastructure design.

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Reporting of crash data and analysis

Statistical tables that summarize key information about road traffic injuries are reported by police

stations to their district’s Crime Records Bureau, from where aggregated statistical tables flow upwards

to the state’s crime records bureau, and the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which publishes the

official statistics for the country (e.g. NCRB, 2015). Police-based statistics underreport road traffic deaths

and injuries in many countries (Bhalla, K. et al., 2014, Derriks, H. M. and Mak, P. M., 2007, Rosman, D. L.

and Knuiman, M. W., 1994, W.H.O., 2015). But, it has been usually assumed that in India while many

injury cases may be taken to private hospitals and not get recorded, the police reports capture most

road traffic deaths based on local investigations for the following reasons:

•

For serious injury cases and deaths on the spot, or before arrival at a hospital, FIRs are filed with the

police especially if those involved want to pursue a court case or claim insurance compensation.

•

Under Section 165 of the The Motor Vehicles Act 1988 (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways,

1988), all State Governments have been authorised to set up Motor Accident Claims Tribunals for

adjudicating upon claims for compensation in respect of road traffic crashes involving death, bodily

injury or property damage. Claims can be made by the person who has sustained the injury, by

owner of damaged property, and by legal representatives of the deceased. Victims or their legal

representatives in the case of hit-and-run cases can also make claims. For this reason a large

number of lawyers look out for such cases in hospitals or police stations and promise legal help to

make the claim.

•

When a RTI victim is admitted to a government hospital and declared as a RTI case, the patients’

details are recorded as a ‘Medico Legal Case’ by a police officer stationed at the hospital. If the

victim dies in the hospital, irrespective of the length of stay in the hospital, the body is released only

after a mandatory autopsy and the relevant details are provided to a police officer seconded by the

relevant police station.

•

Section 146 of the Indian Motor Vehicles Act 1988 (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 1988)

requires that all motor vehicles (except those owned by the Central or State Governments)

operating in a public space must be insured against third party risks.

Fatality estimates

However, the extent of underreporting of road traffic deaths in India is not well understood. For

instance, such a record linkage study in Bangalore covering 23 hospitals found that police data only

missed 5% of road traffic deaths (Gururaj, G., 2006). Recent studies that have estimated national road

traffic deaths using data from the health sector suggest the possibility of higher underreporting by

traffic police. The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study estimates that there were 264,000 (95%CI:

214,000-321,000) deaths in India in 2013 almost twice the deaths reported by traffic police (GBD 2013

Mortality and Causes of Death Collaborators, 2015). GBD estimates of causes of death in India are based

on estimates derived from comparative analysis of several national health data systems, including the

Survey of Causes of Death (SCD), the Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD), and the Million

Death Study (MDS). With the notable exception of the MDS, the other data sources have large

statistical biases (e.g. MCCD only tracks deaths from participating urban hospitals), and may not be a

reliable source of information. The MDS, however, provides estimates of causes of death in India using a

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large nationally representative mortality survey. The most recent data from the study is for the year

2001-2003 and includes over 122,000 deaths from all causes in 1.1 million homes (Hsiao, M. et al.,

2013). The MDS estimated 183,600 (95%CI:173,800-193,400) deaths in the year 2005, about 47%-64%

greater than the NCRB-reported official statistics for 2005.

In view of the reasons given earlier, it is possible that most of the critical and immediately fatal

cases get recorded in crowded urban areas of India and those who die in government hospitals also

enter the official statistics. Therefore, it is likely that the fatality statistic for urban areas in India may be

underestimated by say 10%-20%. According to the MoRTH 61% of the RTI fatalities occur in rural areas

and it is possible that a larger number of cases go unreported on rural roads. In a review of European

and Japanese RTI data linkage, Lai, C.-H. et al. (2006) report that total RTI victims dying within 30 days of

the crash are about 30% greater than those dying on the first day. If we assume that a significant

proportion of fatalities that occur many days after the crash in rural areas are missed (that would reduce

the number by less than 30% of the total deaths) and a smaller proportion of deaths on the spot or on

the way to the hospital are missed, then we can expect underreporting to be around 50% of rural

deaths. Overall, this would imply that the underreporting of fatalities in India may be less than 50%. This

would indicate that the MDS estimate of RTI fatalities being about 47%-64% greater than the NCRB-

reported official number may be closer to the truth than the W.H.O. or GBD estimates. However, this

issue cannot be resolved to satisfaction until such time when the recording of traffic crashes is done in

an manner open to public scrutiny and mechanisms are established to audit the quality of official

statistics of road traffic deaths on a regular basis.

Non fatal injury estimates

While there is uncertainty among experts about the level of underreporting of road traffic deaths,

all experts agree that police reports are a poor source of information for non-fatal injury statistics in

India. Police databases typically report a small fraction of the non-fatal road traffic injuries that occur in

most countries, including most developed countries (Derriks, H. M. and Mak, P. M., 2007, International

Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group, 2011). According to a recent IRTAD (2014) report police records

alone are usually inadequate to carry out analysis on the nature and consequences of serious injuries

because the reported number is underestimated. A report from France also states that under-reporting

is inversely and strongly associated with injury severity: there is a clear gradient of decreasing

probability of being police-reported with decreasing injury severity, 33-38% for severe injuries and 15%

for minor injuries (Amoros, E. et al., 2008, Amoros, E. et al., 2006).

Studies from India also indicate similar trends. A study done in Bangalore shows that while the

number of traffic crash deaths recorded by the police may be reasonably reliable, the total number of

injuries is grossly underestimated (Gururaj, G., 2001). According to that study, the ratio of injured

people reporting to hospitals to that killed was 18:1. It is important to note that even this ratio would be

an underestimate as among those injured many others would have taken treatment at home or from

private medical practitioners. Another detailed study done in rural northern India recorded all traffic-

related injuries and deaths through bi-weekly home visits to all households in 9 villages for a year and

showed that the ratio between critical, serious and minor injuries was 1:29:69 (Varghese, M. and

Mohan, D., 1991).

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International experience is somewhat similar. In 2013 in the U.S.A. police-reported motor vehicle

traffic crashes included 30,057 persons killed, 1,591,000 injured (probably an underestimate), and

4,066,000 damage only crashes giving a ratio of 1:53:135 respectively (National Center for Statistics and

Analysis, 2015). Other studies report ratios between deaths:serious-injuries:minorinjuries as 1:13:102

(Martinez, R., 1996) and 1:14:80 (Evans, L., 1991). A more recent report states that in Netherlands the

ratio of the estimated number of fatalities and hospitalised persons for the year 2000 was 15.7 (Derriks,

H. M. and Mak, P. M., 2007).

Using the epidemiological evidence from India and other countries where better records are

available, a conservative estimate can be made that the ratios between deaths, injuries requiring

hospital treatment, and minor injuries in India are likely to be about 1:15:50. If the estimate of road

traffic fatalities in India (official) in the year 2014 is taken as 141,526, then the estimate of serious

injuries requiring hospitalization would be 2,122,890 and that for minor injuries 7,076,300. The official

estimate of non-fatal RTI in 2014 was 477,731, which probably underestimates injuries requiring

hospitalisation by a factor of 4 and all injuries by a factor of 20.

The probability that a non-fatal injury is registered by police likely depends on whether there is a

need to establish that the injury occurred due to the fault of a particular party, for instance, in order to

claim financial compensation. This implies that the probability of a non-fatal crash being included in

police reporting varies based on a wide range of factors (e.g. if multiple parties were involved, extent of

property damage) that may have little to do with injury severity. Therefore police data should not be

used for studying the epidemiology of non-fatal road traffic injuries in the country.

Ranking in causes of death and population health

Tables 2 and 3 show the leading causes of death and population health loss by age groups in India in

2013 (GBD 2013 Mortality and Causes of Death Collaborators, 2015). Population health loss is measured

Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost, which are defined as the sum of years of potential life lost due

to premature mortality and the years of productive life lost due to disability. These tables show that

injuries resulting from road traffic crashes impose a substantial burden on the health of the population

in India, especially among young adults. Road traffic injuries are the 8th leading cause of death in India

and the 9th leading cause of overall health loss. Road traffic injuries impose a public health burden that

exceeds that of many infectious diseases (e.g. malaria) and non-communicable diseases (e.g. diabetes)

that are acknowledged to be important health issues for the country. The net health loss from road

traffic injuries in India is approximately three times that from maternal disorders. Among young adults

aged 15-49 years, road traffic injuries are the fourth leading cause of death and health loss. Men are

injured at a much higher rate than women. Among young men aged 15-49 years, road traffic injuries are

the leading cause of health loss.

Figure 3 shows that over the last two decades the burden of road traffic injuries in India has

increased even while that due to many infectious diseases has declined. In 1990, road traffic injuries

were the 16th leading cause of health loss. However, in 2013 they were ranked 9th due to an increase of

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Table 2. : Top 10 leading causes of death in India in 2013 (Source GBD 2013 Mortality

and Causes of Death Collaborators, 2015)

<5 Years

5-14 years

15-49 years

50-69 years

70+ years

All Ages

1

Neonatal

encephalopathy

Intestinal

infections

Tuberculosis

Ischemic heart

disease

Ischemic heart

disease

Ischemic heart

disease

2

Neonatal

preterm birth

Diarrheal diseases

Ischemic heart

disease

COPD

COPD

COPD

3

Lower respiratory

infection

Lower respiratory

infection

Self-harm

Cerebrovascular

disease

Cerebrovascular

disease

Cerebrovascular

disease

4

Neonatal sepsis

Drowning

Road Injuries

Tuberculosis

Diarrheal

diseases

Tuberculosis

5

Other neonatal

Malaria

Fire & heat

Hypertensive

heart disease

Hypertensive

heart disease

Diarrheal diseases

6

Diarrheal

diseases

Road Injuries

Cerebrovascular

disease

Diarrheal

diseases

Tuberculosis

Lower respiratory

infection

7

Congenital

anomalies

Tuberculosis

HIV/AIDS

Diabetes

Diabetes

Self-harm

8

Intestinal

infections

Leishmaniasis

Diarrheal

diseases

Asthma

Lower respiratory

infection

Road Injuries

9

STDs

Animal contact

Lower respiratory

infect

Pneumo-

coniosis

Asthma

Hypertensive

heart disease

10

Protein-energy

malnutrition

Congenital

anomalies

Intestinal

infections

Interstitial lung

disease

Interstitial lung

disease

Diabetes

Table 3. Top 10 Leading causes of health loss in India in 2013* (Source GBD 2013

Mortality and Causes of Death Collaborators, 2015)

<5 Years

5-14 years

15-49 years

50-69 years

70+ years

All Ages

1

Neonatal

encephalopathy

Iron-deficiency

anemia

Tuberculosis

Ischemic heart

disease

Ischemic heart

disease

Ischemic heart

disease

2

Neonatal preterm

birth

Intestinal

infections

Self-harm

COPD

COPD

COPD

3

Lower respiratory

infections

Diarrheal diseases

Ischemic heart

disease

Cerebrovascular

disease

Cerebrovascular

disease

Lower respiratory

infections

4 Neonatal sepsis

Lower respiratory

infections

Road Injuries

Tuberculosis

Sense organ

diseases

Tuberculosis

5 Diarrheal diseases Skin diseases

Low back & neck

pain

Diabetes

Diarrheal

diseases

Neonatal preterm

birth

6

Other neonatal

Malaria

Depressive disorders

Sense organ

diseases

Diabetes

Neonatal

encephalopathy

7

Congenital

anomalies

Drowning

Migraine

Low back &

neck pain

Tuberculosis Diarrheal diseases

8

Protein-energy

malnutrition

Migraine

COPD

Diarrheal

diseases

Hypertensive

heart disease

Cerebrovascular

disease

9

Intestinal

infections

Depressive

disorders

Fire & heat

Hypertensive

heart disease

Asthma

Road injuries

10

STDs

Congenital

anomalies

Skin diseases

Road Injuries Alzheimer disease

Low back &

neck pain

*Health loss is measured in Disability Adjusted Life Years Lost, DALYs.

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54% in disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost to road traffic injuries. In contrast, overall health loss

due to lower respiratory infections declined by 65% and diarrheal diseases by 65%.

INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON

The 2015 W.H.O. Global Status Report on Road Safety provides two sets of road traffic death

statistics for every country. These are the official government statistics (usually based on police data)

reported by each country to W.H.O., and estimates produced by W.H.O. through statistical analysis of

national health statistics (including vital registration). Figure 4 shows the official RTI fatality rates for

different countries plotted against per capita income of the countries and Figure 5 shows the rates for

the same countries as estimated by the W.H.O. (W.H.O., 2015). These figures show that for more than

half the countries the W.H.O. estimates are greater than 1.3 times the official rates reported by the

countries. The ratio of the W.H.O. estimate and official rate for different countries is shown in Figure 6.

This ratio for India is 1.5 as the official reported rate is 11.0 deaths per 100,000 persons and the W.H.O.

estimate 16.6. These data indicate that some countries with similar incomes have possibly lower levels

of under-reporting and some with higher income levels have also have higher levels of under-reporting.

This suggests that country income level cannot be taken as excuse for inefficient data collection systems

and it is possible for countries like India to set up professionally managed data collection systems that

give a reasonably accurate estimate of RTI fatalities.

Both the official country data and W.H.O. estimates (Figures 4 and 5) show that there are countries

with incomes similar to India that have RTI fatality rates lower than India. Again demonstrating that lack

of finances does not necessarily mean that a society has to have absence of safety on the roads. At the

same time, many countries much richer than India have much higher fatality rates. Therefore, we cannot

Figure 3. Leading causes of health loss in 1990 and 2013 (Source GBD 2013 Mortality

and Causes of Death Collaborators, 2015).

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depend on growth in national income alone to promote road safety. It will be necessary to put in place

evidence based national safety policies to ensure improvements in traffic safety.

Figure 4. RTI fatality rate per 100,000 persons reported by different countries vs

per capita income (Source: W.H.O., 2015).

Figure 5. W.H.O. estimates of RTI fatality rate per 100,000 persons for different

countries vs per capita income (Source: W.H.O., 2015).

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DATA USED IN THIS REPORT

Injury and fatality data

Table 4 shows the different indicators generally used for assessing RTI issues (Mohan, D. et al.,

2006). Out of all these indicators we only use number of fatalities and fatalities per 100,000 population

for most of our analysis. Only fatality statistics from NCRB and MoRTH reports are used for analysis. We

assume that though the Indian fatality statistics may suffer from some underestimation there may not

be a systematic bias in recording of fatalities of specific road users. In such a situation the fatality

statistics should be adequate for predicting trends and relative comparisons between different risk

factors. Fatalities per 100,000 population is used for all comparisons because the population statistics

are expected to be reliable and the index is a good indicator of the health burden on the population.

Fatalities per population can also be used as proxy for risk of death per trip as international experience

suggests that the average number of trips per person remains relatively stable over time, incomes and

place (Knoflacher, H., 2007). Knoflacher further states that average trip rates in cities around the world

vary from 2.8 to 3.8. That total trip rates do not vary much and generally remain between 3 and 4 trips

per person per day has been supported by many studies around the world (Giuliano, G. and Narayan, D.,

2003, Hupkes, G., 1982, Santos, A. et al., 2011, Transport for London, 2011, Zegras, C., 2010)

Non fatal injury data are not used at all in this report as they are not likely to give any useful

insights. Injury and accident statistics suffer from a very high margin of underestimation as discussed in

an earlier section. In addition, international experience suggests that injury and non-fatal crash data can

suffer from many other biases such as relative under-reporting for pedestrian and bicycle injuries, night-

Figure 6. Ratio of W.H.O. estimates and official RTI

fatality rate per 100,000 persons for different countries

vs per capita income (Source: W.H.O., 2015).

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time crashes, hit and run cases, and crashes on rural roads (Abay, K. A., 2015, Amoros, E. et al., 2006,

Derriks, H. M. and Mak, P. M., 2007, Rosman, D. L. and Knuiman, M. W., 1994).

Fatalities per 10,000 vehicles and fatalities per vehicle-kilometre have not been used in this report

except for a few specific comparisons. The official number for number of vehicles in India and cities are

all overestimates (explained in an earlier section), and therefore, cannot be used for any calculations. In

addition the indicator fatalities per 10,000 vehicles should not be used for comparison if the modal

shares differ form place to place (Mohan, D. and Tiwari, G., 2000). The number of fatalities per 100,000

population always decrease as the number of vehicles per capita increase in a society even when no

specific safety measures have been put in place (Adams, J., 1987).

Table 4. Examples of commonly used indicators of the road traffic injury problem

(Source: Mohan, D. et al., 2006).

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Data from NCRB and MoRTH reports

Table 5 shows a summary of the data that have been used for this report from the NCRB and

MoRTH publications (NCRB, 2015, Transport Research Wing, 2015) and the reasons why some data have

not been used. Since non-fatal crash and injury data and motor vehicle registration statistics are not

reliable as explained in earlier sections, no table that includes these statistics has been used for analysis

in the present report.

Items 4 and 5 in Table 5 for the NCRB report and items 16 and 17 in the MoRTH report refer to the

following details:

1.

Number of Persons affected by Road Accidents (Culpability vis-à-vis Fatality) during 2014

(Mode of Transport wise)

2.

Number of Persons Died in Road Accidents and Mode of Transport (Culpability vis-à-vis

Fatality) – 2014 (State/UT & City wise)

3.

Total number of accidents, persons killed and injured based on the involvement by vehicle

type during 2014

4.

Total Number of Persons Killed in Road Accidents in terms of Road User Categories: 2014

The reader of these tables is not able to understand what these tables mean. In item 1 above

(NCRB) the classification is done according to number of ‘Offending Driver/Pedestrian’ and number of

victims who died by road user category. If we just take the case of fatal pedestrians in the table, there

are 747 ‘offending’ pedestrians and 5,943 ‘victim’ pedestrians, giving a total of 6,690 pedestrian deaths

(4.7 per cent of the total) who died in India in 2014. The table in item 2 above (NCRB) also gives the

same number for offenders and victims as pedestrians. In item number 4 above (MoRTH) the report

gives the total number of pedestrians killed as 8.8 per cent. These are very low proportions for

pedestrian fatalities in India. Work done by independent researchers using police reports (same sources

are used by above reports) from different cities and highway locations show very different results as

shown in Table 6. In the nationally representative mortality survey of 1.1 million homes Hsiao, M. et al.

(2013) reported that pedestrians and motorcyclists constituted 37 and 20 per cent of total RTI fatalities

respectively. These data make it clear that the proportion of pedestrian fatalities in India cannot be as

low as 8.8 per cent. In all probability the pedestrian fatalities may comprise around 40 per cent of all

fatalities. If the pedestrian fatality proportions are so low in these official reports, then it stands to

reason that proportions and numbers for all other road users will also be wrong. More data will be

presented to strengthen this argument in subsequent sections of this report. The numbers and

proportions of different road users killed and injured as mentioned in the NCRB and MoRTH reports are

erroneous and cannot be used for any analysis.

Although it is clear that NCRB and MoRTH reports do not provide valid statistical tabulations on

types of road-users killed, researchers have successfully generated reasonable estimates by inspecting

detailed police reports. Such case files are paper-based and usually available at the police station with

jurisdiction over the location where the crash occurred or at the district’s crime records bureau office.

Researchers who are able to acquire requisite permissions need to undertake a tedious process of

working with multiple police stations to acquire copies of all police reports and extracting information.

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Clearly this cannot be done over a large region or prospectively to track changes over time without the

use of substantial resources. Nevertheless, collecting such data even for a small region or a short period

of time can provide valuable insights to researchers and policy makers interested in addressing local

road safety issues.

The data regarding cause of crashes and persons responsible for crashes as reported in the NCRB

and MoRTH reports is also not reliable. As mentioned earlier it is the IPC codes that decide how a police

officer assigns blame to one of the participants in a crash (usually one of the drivers). This is an

important issue, as the ‘cause’ of the accident has to be recorded as a ‘fault’ of a driver under one or

more of the 4 or 5 provisions.

This procedure ensures that 80% or more of the cases get attributed to ‘human error’ and there is

no place for understanding crashes as a result of a host of factors including vehicle, road and

infrastructure design. For example the NCRB report attributes Driving under Influence of drugs and

alcohol as 1.6 per cent of all crashes. Independent studies done estimate alcohol and drugs as a

contributing factor in more than 20-30 per cent of the crashes (Arora, P. et al., 2013, Das, A. et al., 2012,

Esser, M. B. et al., 2015, Gururaj, G., 2006, Mishra, B. K. et al., 1984). If one of the risk factors is

underestimated by a large margin than the estimates for all the other ‘causes’ become unreliable.

Therefore, tables dealing with cause of road traffic crashes should not be used for any analysis or

policymaking.

The summary of data usability in Table 5 suggests that only about 20 percent of the tables in NCRB

and MoRTH reports are usable for road safety analysis and policy making and the rest 80 per cent

include unreliable information, which should not be used. This situation can only be improved by

MoRTH with a complete revamp of the data collection systems in collaboration with the Ministry of

Home Affairs and establishment of a professional data and analysis department (National Transport

Development Policy Committee, 2014a).

SUMMARY

•

According to official statistics 141,526 persons were killed and 477,731 injured in road traffic crashes

in India in 2000 (NCRB, 2015). However, this is probably an underestimate, as not all injuries are

reported to the police

•

The number of fatalities has continued to increase at about seven per cent a year over the past

decade except over the last couple of years.

•

The number of cars and motorised two-wheelers (MTW) registered in 2012 was 21.6 and 115.4

million respectively. The official registration data over represent the number of vehicles in actual

operation because vehicles that go off the road due to age or other reasons do not get removed

from the records. The actual number of personal vehicles on the road is estimated to be 50%-55%

of those on the records.

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Table 5. Summary of RTI data used (or not used) from Indian official reports.

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The extent of underreporting of road traffic deaths in India is not well understood. The Global Burden of

Disease (GBD) study estimates that there were 264,000 (95%CI: 214,000-321,000) deaths in India in

2013 almost twice the deaths reported by traffic police. The Million Death Study estimate for fatalities is

about 47%-64% greater than the NCRB-reported official statistics and may be closer to the truth.

•

Police data should not be used for studying the epidemiology of non-fatal road traffic injuries in the

country. The official estimate of non-fatal RTI in 2014 was 477,731, which probably underestimates

injuries requiring hospitalisation by a factor of 4 and all injuries by a factor of 20.

•

Over the last two decades the burden of road traffic injuries in India has increased even while that

due to many infectious diseases has declined. In 1990, road traffic injuries were the 16th leading

cause of health loss, however, in 2013 they were ranked 9th.

•

Country income level cannot be taken as excuse for inefficient data collection systems and it is

possible for countries like India to set up professionally managed data collection systems that give a

reasonably accurate estimate of RTI fatalities.

•

Lack of finances does not necessarily mean that a society has to have absence of safety on the

roads. We cannot depend on growth in national income alone to promote road safety. It will be

necessary to put in place evidence based national safety policies to ensure improvements in traffic

safety.

•

The numbers and proportions of different road users killed and injured as mentioned in the NCRB

and MoRTH reports are erroneous and cannot be used for any analysis.

•

Tables dealing with cause of road traffic crashes should not be used for any analysis or policy making

•

Only about 20 percent of the tables in NCRB and MoRTH reports are usable for road safety analysis

and policy making and the rest 80 per cent include unreliable information, which should not be

used. This situation can only be improved by MoRTH with a complete revamp of the data collection

systems in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs and establishment of a professional data

and analysis department.

•

Since the ‘accident’ and ‘injury’ data are not reliable at all, it would be useful if the MoRTH and

NCRB reports separate fatal and non-fatal cases in all tables included in the reports.

Table 6. Modal share of road traffic fatalities in Mumbai, Delhi and four rural

highway locations in India.

Notes: (1) Average of data 2008-2012, adapted from (Mani, A. and Tagat, A., 2013);

(2) Source: (Delhi Traffic Police, 2014); (3) Data from locations on 34 national and state

highways in India, (Tiwari, G. et al., 2000); (4) Source (Tiwari, G., 2015)

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2. Analysis of national data

NATIONAL FATALITY RATES

Figure 7 shows the official estimates for total number of RTI fatalities and fatalities per 100,000

persons in India from 1970 to 2013 (NCRB). The total number of deaths in 2014 was 12 times greater

than in 1970 with an average annual compound growth rate (AACGR) of 6%, and the fatality rate in 2014

was 5.2 times greater than in 1970 with an AACGR of 3.9%. There have been a few periods when the

growth in RTI fatalities has decreased briefly and for a small amount, but the causes for the same are

not known. However, it is known that motor vehicle crash rates have a tendency of decreasing along

with a downturn in the national economy for the following reasons (International Traffic Safety Data and

Analysis Group, 2015):

•

Economic downturns are associated with less growth in traffic or a decline in traffic volumes.

•

Economic downturns are associated with a disproportionate reduction in the exposure of high-risk

groups in traffic; in particular unemployment tends to be higher among young people than people in

other age groups.

•

Reductions in disposable income may be associated with more cautious road user behaviour, such

as less drinking and driving, lower speed to save fuel, fewer holiday trips.

This may explain the reason why the rate of growth in fatalities slowed down in India in the late

1990s and in the period 2010-2014 as these were also periods of low economic growth. There is no

indication of a long term trend indicating that the increase in fatalities is going to reduce significantly in

the near future. Two modelling exercises have attempted to predict the time period over which we

might expect fatality rates to decline in different countries (Koornstra, M., 2007, Kopits, E. and Cropper,

Figure 7. Total number of RTI fatalities and fatalities per

100,000 persons in India (Source: NCRB).

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M., 2005). Kopits and Cropper use the past experience of 88 countries to model the dependence of total

number of fatalities on fatality rates per unit vehicle, vehicles per unit population and per capita income

of the society. . Thus, based on projections of future income growth, they predict that fatalities in India

will continue to rise until 2042 before reaching a total of about 198,000 deaths and then begin to

decline. Koornstra uses a cyclically modulated risk decay function model, which in a way incorporates

the cyclically varying nature of a society’s concerns for safety, and predicts an earlier date of 2030 for

the start of decline in RTI fatalities in India. If we assume the average growth rate of 6% per year

declines to nil by 2030, then we can expect about 200,000 fatalities in 2030 before we see a reduction in

fatalities.

The above models use the experience of high-income countries (HIC) over the past decades in

calculating relationships between vehicle ownership levels and risk of death per vehicle. Therefore, the

models presuppose the onset of decline at specific per-capita income levels if the past road safety

policies of HICs are followed in the future in countries like India. Based on an analysis of RTI fatality

trends in Europe and the USA, Brüde, U. and Elvik, R. (2015) suggest that:

•

A country does not at any time have an “optimal” or “acceptable” number of traffic fatalities.

•

In countries with a growing number of traffic fatalities, one cannot count on this trend to turn by

itself; active policy interventions are needed to turn the trend.

If this is true, then the only way the decline of RTI fatalities can be brought forward in time is to

institute additional India specific road safety policies that are new and more effective.

MODAL SHARE OF RTI FATALITIES

Table 7 shows estimates of the share of different road user fatalities by MoRTH (Transport Research

Wing, 2015), W.H.O. (W.H.O., 2015), Hsiao, M. et al. (2013) and the authors of the present report. The

MoRTH estimate is based on police records and the W.H.O. estimate on reports provided by the Indian

government (based on police records), Hsiao et al. estimates are based on a nationally representative

mortality survey of 1.1 million homes in India which reported 122,000 RTI deaths, and the author’s (of

this report) estimate is based an analysis of police records obtained from 8 cities (Delhi Traffic Police,

2014, Mani, A. and Tagat, A., 2013, Mohan, D. et al., 2013) and a number of locations on rural roads

around the country (Gururaj, G. et al., 2014,

Tiwari, G., 2015, Tiwari, G. et al., 2000).

The MoRTH and W.H.O. estimates are

similar because they come from the same source

and suggest that pedestrian and bicycle fatalities

constitute only 12%-13% of the total RTI

fatalities in the country. The Hsiao, M. et al.

(2013) and the authors’ estimates for share of

pedestrian and bicycle fatalities is 45% and 39%

respectively. This is a very large gap between the

Table 7. Estimates of the share of

different road user fatalities by MoRTH

(Transport Research Wing, 2015), W.H.O.

(W.H.O., 2015), Hsiao, M. et al. (2013)

and the authors of the present report.

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official and researcher’s estimates. Since Hsiao et al. have estimated the fatalities from interviews with a

statistically representative sample of households in India, it is likely that their number is closer to the

truth. The author’s estimate is made from detailed analysis of police reports from various parts of the

country, and therefore, may be considered as based on official data, though from a smaller sample in

the country. Since the Hsiao and authors’ estimates are similar, it is quite certain that these estimates

are more reliable than those in NCRB, MoRTH and W.H.O. reports. The error in the official reports

probably arises from wrong coding of the victims’ status and the procedure needs to reviewed carefully

and revised. The error in the official reports probably arises from a wrong coding of the victims’ status

and the procedure needs to reviewed carefully and revised.

AGE AND SEX DISTRIBUTION

Figure 8 shows the RTI fatalities and population distribution by age in India and USA (National

Center for Statistics and Analysis, 2015, NCRB, 2015, Office of the Registrar General & Census

Commissioner, 2015). In India the proportion of fatalities for the age group 15-59 is greater than their

representation in the population and less for the age groups 0-14 years (1:7.9 of the population) and

>59 years (1:1.4 of the population). In the USA children <15 years have a much lower representation in

RTI fatalities as compared to their ratio in the population (1:5.1) but all the other age groups have a

slightly higher representation.

It is not known why children’s (<15 years) and the elderly (>59 years) involvement rate in India is

lower than that in the USA when a large number of children walk, cycle and travel on overloaded

vehicles to school in India. It is possible that the exposure rate of the elderly in India is less than for

those in the USA and this may explain their lower involvement. However, reasons for these differences

need further study. As the health status of the Indian population improves the age structure would

become more similar to that in the USA, and this would require that we focus more on policies for

ensuring safety for older persons on the roads.

In India the ratio of female:male fatalities in 2014 was 1:5.9 and the ratio in the USA in 2013 was

1:2.4. One of the reasons why the female fatality ratio in India is lower than that in the USA is a lower

Figure 8. RTI fatality distribution and population distribution by age in India

and USA (Source: NCRB, 2015 and National Center for Statistics and Analysis,

2015).

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participation rate in formal employment in India (World Bank, 2015a). As the participation rate of

women in formal work increases in India it may be necessary to understand if any specific safety

measures have to be instituted to ensure women’s safety on the road.

STATE WISE ANALYSIS

Figure 9 shows the total number of fatalities by state and territory from 1971 to 2014. The

states of Nagaland and Sikkim and Union Territories Lakshadweep, Daman & Diu, Andaman and Nicobar

Islands and Dadra and Nagar Haveli have not been included in the chart as they reported less than 100

fatalities in 2014. Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura are small hill states, and the

union territories of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu,

Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Chandigarh and Delhi union territories which are generally small and the last

two are cities. Therefore, these regions can have different traffic and fatality patterns.

Andhra shows a decline in the number of fatalities between 2011 and 2014 because the state was

divided in two states (Andhra and Telangana) in 2014. The total of fatalities in Andhra and Telangana in

2014 was 1,4814 as compared to 1,518 in undivided Andhra in 2011. In almost all the large states

fatalities more than doubled between 1991 and 2014. In Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tripura

fatalities increased by 4-6 times, and in Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and Assam 8-10 times during the same

period.

Figure 10 shows the fatalities per 100,000 population for states and union territories in 1996 and

2014. Fatality rates per million population increased in most regions except in the north eastern hill

states and the cities of Delhi and Chandigarh (union territories). The increase was 40%-50% in Madhya

Pradesh, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh; 60%-100% in Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal,

undivided Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Orissa; and more than 100% in Haryana, Sikkim,

Assam and Punjab. The reasons for these differences are not known. However, these data do indicate

that there are states with high rates and those with low rates in all regions of the country.

Figure 11 shows the association between fatalities per 100,000 persons (2014) and per capita

income of states and union territories (2013-2014). These data show that many states with high per

capita incomes have similar fatality rates as states with low incomes and that fatality rates do not seem

to have a strong correlation with income.

Figure 12 shows the fatality rate per 100,000 persons (2014) as a function of population density in

states and union territories. There does not seem to be any strong correlation of fatality rates with

population density.

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* Andhra Pradesh was divided into two states (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) in 2014, this

is why Andhra Pradesh shows a decline in fatalities in 2014.

Figure 9. Total number of RTI fatalities by state and union territory from 1971

to 2014 (Source: NCRB).

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Figure 10. RTI fatalities per 100,000 persons for states and union territories

in 1996 and 2014 (Source NCRB).

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Since the above data show that RTI fatality rates in states and union territories do not seem to be

influenced strongly by location in the country, state income or density, it suggests that state RTI fatality

rates may be more influenced by infrastructure availability, vehicle modal shares, road design, and

enforcement. It appears that if fatality rates have to be reduced in India, much more attention will have

to be given to street and highway designs and enforcement issues that have influence on vulnerable

road user safety than has been the practice up to now. This will probably require a great deal of

research and innovation as designs and policies currently being promoted do not seem to be having the

desired effect in improving road safety.

SUMMARY

•

The total number of deaths in 2014 was 12 times greater than in 1970 with an average annual

compound growth rate (AACGR) of 6%, and the fatality rate in 2014 was 5.2 times greater than in

1970 with an AACGR of 3.9%.

•

If we assume the average growth rate of 6% per year declines to nil by 2030, then we can expect

about 200,000 fatalities in 2030 before we see a reduction in fatalities.

•

The only way the decline of RTI fatalities can be brought forward in time is to institute additional

India-specific road safety policies that are new and more effective.

•

The NCRB, MoRTH and W.H.O. estimate of pedestrian and bicycle fatalities comprising 13% of the

total RTI fatalities is not correct and the researchers’ estimates that this number may be in the range

39%-45% is more reliable.

•

The error in the official reports regarding types of road users killed probably arises from a wrong

coding of the victims’ status and the procedure needs to reviewed carefully and revised.

•

It is not known why children’s (<15 years) and the elderly (>59 years) involvement rate in India is

lower than that in the USA when a large number of children walk, cycle and travel on overloaded

vehicles to school in India. Reasons for these differences need further study.

Figure 11. RTI Fatalities per 100,000

persons (2014) vs per capita income

(2013-2014)of states and union

territories.

Figure 12. RTI fatalities per 100,000

persons (2014) vs population density in

states and union territories.

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•

In almost all the large states fatalities more than doubled between 1991 and 2014. In Maharashtra,

Orissa, Rajasthan, and Tripura, fatalities increased by 4-6 times, and in Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and

Assam 8-10 times during the same period.

•

Since RTI fatality rates in states and union territories do not seem to be influenced strongly by

location in the country (culture), state income or density, it suggests that state RTI fatality rates may

be more influenced by infrastructure availability, vehicle modal shares, road design, and

enforcement.

•

Much more attention will have to be given to street and highway designs and enforcement issues

that have influence on vulnerable road user safety than has been the practice up to now. This will

probably require a great deal of research and innovation as designs and policies currently being

promoted do not seem to be having the desired effect in improving road safety.

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3. Urban safety

CITY DATA

According to the MoRTH report (Transport Research Wing, 2015) 56,663 (40.6%) fatalities took

place in urban areas and 83,008 (59.4%) in rural areas. These data suggest that the urban RTI fatality

share is slightly higher than the estimated urban population share (32%) in 2014 (World Bank, 2015b).

However, details of fatalities and vehicles registered are reported only for cities with populations

greater than one million. The latest report includes details for 50 million plus cities recording a total of

16,611 fatalities (29% of urban RTI deaths). In this chapter we only use total fatality data for cities from

the NCRB and MoRTH reports (other data are not reliable) and detailed analysis based on data reported

in research studies.

Million-plus cities

Data for 50 million plus cities are reported in MoRTH and NCRB reports published in 2015 (NCRB,

2015, Transport Research Wing, 2015). Figure 13 shows total deaths reported in these cities for the

years 1996, 2006 and 2014. Data for cities that did not have populations > 1 million in earlier years is not

available. These data show that the number of deaths increased in almost all the cities between 1996

and 2006 and most cities between 2006 and 2014. Significant reduction in number of deaths are seen in

large cities (> 5 m population): Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The reasons for

these reductions are not known. It is possible that increases in traffic congestion leading to decreases in

vehicle speeds may have contributed to this.

Figure 14 shows the annual RTI deaths per 100,000 population in million plus cities for 1991-2011.

For some cities data for earlier years was not available as their population was less than 1 million. Data

for 2014 are not shown as population estimates for all cities were not available. In 2011 the average

death rate for all cities combined was 14.7 per 100,000. In 2011 the highest rates are indicated for

Thrissur, Asansol and Kollam (> 40 deaths per 100,000 population) and lowest for Ahmedabad and Surat

(<6 deaths per 100,000 population). The death rates for Asansol and Kollam are abnormally high at (>

60) and it is possible that these statistics may be in error and represent the whole district and not the

cities. For 36 cities where the data can be compared between 2001 and 2011 only 12 saw a decrease in

fatality rates. For most of them the decrease was less than 30%. This is quite an alarming situation, as in

a third of these cities the death rate increased by more than 50% in a period of 10 years. Since a vast

majority of the victims in these cities are vulnerable road users (see next section), one possible cause

could be increases in vehicle speeds. The probability of pedestrian death is estimated at less than 10% at

impact speeds of 30 km/h and greater than 80% at 50 km/h, and the relationship increase in fatalities

and increase in impact velocities is governed by a power of four (Koornstra, M., 2007, Leaf, W. A. and

Preusser, D. F., 1999).

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Figure 13. Annual number of RTI deaths in million plus cities 1996-2011. For some

cities data for earlier years not available as their population was less than 1

million (Source: NCRB). Continued on next page.

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Figure 13 (Continued rom previous page). Annual number of RTI deaths in million

plus cities 1996-2011. For some cities data for earlier years not available as

their population was less than 1 million (Source: NCRB).

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Figure 14. Annual RTI deaths per 100,000 population in million plus cities 1991-

2011. For some cities data for earlier years not available as their population was

less than 1 million (Source: NCRB). Continued on next page.

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Figure 14 (Continued rom previous page). Annual RTI deaths per 100,000 population

in million plus cities 1991-2011. For some cities data for earlier years not

available as their population was less than 1 million (Source: NCRB).

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DETAILS FOR SELECTED CITIES

Reliable data regarding fatalities modal shares and other details roe road traffic crashes are not

available from official reports. In this section we report data that have been obtained by researchers

from police stations in different cities in India. These are official data as maintained in the records of

police departments and analysed to obtain trends and relationships.

Modal share of RTI fatalities

Figure 15 shows the proportion of road traffic fatalities by road user

type in six Indian cities (Mohan, D. et al., 2013). The total number of

vulnerable road user deaths in the six cities range between 84% and

93%, car occupant fatalities between 2% and 4%, and occupants of

three-wheeled scooter taxis (TSTs) less than 5% per cent, except in

Vishakhapatnam where the proportion for the latter is 8%. Figure 16

shows that these total proportions are similar to those in the megacities

Mumbai and Delhi (Delhi Traffic Police, 2014, Mani, A. and Tagat, A.,

2013). Table 8 shows that these proportions are very different from

those reported by NCRB (2015). Clearly the NCRB and MoRTH estimates

for RTI modal shares suffer from erroneous coding and should not be

used.

However, the relative proportions of pedestrian fatalities are

smaller in these cities and motorised two-wheeler (MTW) fatalities greater than those in the megacities.

This may be because the proportion of MTW ownership is higher in these smaller cities than that in the

Figure 15. Proportion of road traffic fatalities by road user

type (vehicle occupants, bicyclists and pedestrians) in 6 Indian

cities (* number in parentheses represents the official RTI

fatality rate in the city in 2011).

Table 8. Proportion

of pedestrian

fatalities according

to NCRB (2015)

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megacities. Helmet use by MTW riders is not enforced in any of these cities though the use is mandated

by the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 of India (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 1988). The high rate

of MTW fatalities can be reduced significantly if the existing mandatory helmet laws are enforced in all

the cities and laws introduced for compulsory daytime running lights for MTWs (Elvik, R., 1993, Elvik, R.,

1996, Peden, M. et al., 2004, Radin Umar, R. S. et al., 1996).

Ludhiana and Amritsar have a higher proportion of bicyclists killed than the other cities. Anecdotal

evidence suggests that these cities have higher bicycle use than the other cities surveyed, but we cannot

confirm this.

Road user victim type and impacting vehicle/object

Figure 17 shows the data for the distribution of road traffic fatalities by road user category versus

the respective impacting vehicles/objects for two of the six cities, Agra and Bhopal. These two cities are

representative of the patterns in all the six cities and have been selected as the fatality rates per

100,000 persons are different with Vishakhapatnam at 24 and Bhopal at 14 in 2011. In both the cities

the largest proportion of fatalities for all road user categories (especially vulnerable road users) are

associated with impacts with buses and trucks and then cars. This is true for the other four cities also.

The most interesting feature emerging from this analysis is the involvement of MTW as impacting

vehicles for pedestrian, bicyclist and MTW fatalities in cities. The proportion of pedestrian fatalities

associated with MTW impacts ranges from 8 to 25 per cent of the total. The highest proportion was

observed in Bhopal. The involvement of MTWs as impacting vehicles in VRU fatalities may be due to the

fact that pedestrians and bicyclists do not have adequate facilities on arterial roads of these cities and

they have to share the road space (the curb side lane) with MTW riders.

Figure 16. Proportion of road traffic fatalities by road user

type (vehicle occupants, bicyclists and pedestrians) in Delhi

and Mumbai.

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Road traffic fatalities by type of road user and time of crash

Figure 18 shows the fatalities by road user category and time of day in Agra and Ludhiana. These

two cities have been selected as they have different fatality rates and traffic characteristics were studied

in greater details in these two cities. Pedestrian and bicycle fatalities have high rates earlier in the

morning. This may be because this class of road users start for work earlier than those using motorised

transport and vehicle speeds may be higher at this time. The total fatality rate remains somewhat

similar between the hours of 10:00 and 18:00 and a strong bimodal distribution is not observed. This

could be because school and working timings are reasonably staggered. Schools start around 08:00 in

the morning and close at 14:00 and some of them have a second shift. Private offices open between

Figure 17. Fatal RTI victim road user category and impacting vehicles/objects in

Vishakhapatnam and Bhopal (numbers in bars represent number of cases).

Figure 18. Fatal RTI victim road user category and impacting vehicles/objects in

Vishakhapatnam and Bhopal (numbers in bars represent number of cases).

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08:00-09:00, government offices between 09:00-10:00 and shops around 11:00. Most shops stay open

up to 21:00 and restaurants up to 23:00. The data also show that MTW and pedestrian deaths are

relatively high at 20:00-23:00 when we would expect traffic volumes to be low. The details of risk factors

for high rate of vulnerable road user fatalities at night are not available for all cities but surveys done in

Agra and Ludhiana suggest that due to lower volumes vehicle velocities can be higher at night, adequate

street lighting is not present, and there is very limited checking of drivers under the influence of alcohol

(Malhan, A., 2014). The situation would be similar in the other four cities except in Vadodara where

there is prohibition of alcohol use by law.

Age of victims

In the detailed study done for six cities the data coders marked out the cases where ‘children’ were

mentioned as victims in the text in the police reports. In general these would be persons younger than 4

years. For Agra, Amritsar, Bhopal and Vishakhapatnam (total fatal cases in sample: 2,788) a total of 78

cases (2.8%) were identified of which 13 were MTW occupants (0.5%) and 53 were pedestrians (1.9%).

This is less than the national rate of 7% for persons 0-14 years. This may be partly because some of

those below 14 years may not have been classified as children. Lower exposure rates for children may

account for this, however, this explanation does not seem to be adequate enough to explain these very

low rates, especially children on motorcycles. This phenomenon needs further study.

Road user risk analysis

Risk of fatality has been calculated using different indices to understand the role of different motor

vehicles, personal risk per trip by different modes and the risk different vehicles present to society.

Occupant risk per hundred thousand vehicles

Figure 6 shows the number of motor vehicle occupant fatalities per 100,000 vehicles for four cities

where the vehicle data were relatively reliable. This has been obtained by dividing the total number of

occupant fatalities for each vehicle type estimated for 2011 divided by the number of vehicles of that

type estimated for the city (corrected for overestimates). These data show that occupant fatalities per

vehicle decrease in the following order – TST:MTW:Car. Occupant fatality rates for MTW and TST

occupants are 2-3 and 3-5 times higher that for

cars respectively. The high rates per vehicle for

TSTs would also be because they carry a much

larger number of passengers in the day as

compared to MTWs and cars. The MTW fatality

rate is not more than 5 times the fatality rate

for cars in any of the four cities. For Europe and

USA this ratio is reported to be in the range of

10-20 (Peden, M. et al., 2004). We do not have

detailed data to explain with certainty why this

risk ratio for MTW riders should be lower in

Indian cities where the helmet law is not being

Figure 19. Motor vehicle occupant

fatalities per 100,000 vehicles.

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34

enforced. The possible reason could be that the majority of motorcycles sold are of low power (<150 cc),

the riders are not motorcycling enthusiasts but regular commuters, and also the effect of safety in

numbers (Bhalla, K. and Mohan, D., 2015).

Personal fatality risk per 10 million

trips

The personal fatality risk has been

calculated by dividing the vehicle specific

occupant fatality rate by estimates of average

number of occupants carried by each vehicle

per day. The numbers assumed are (based on 3

trips per day for MTW and cars with occupancy

of 1.3 and 2.3 per trip respectively): MTW – 4,

TST – 60, Car – 7 (Chanchani, R. and Rajkotia, F.,

2012, Mohan, D. and Roy, D., 2003, Wilbur

Smith Associates, 2008). The results of these

calculations are shown in Figure 20. It is clear

that given the present trip lengths for each

vehicle type, the MTW rider is 3-6 times more at risk than a car occupant. The MTW fatality rates per

trip in Agra and Vishakhapatnam are much higher than the other three cities. The reasons for this are

not known at present. At a personal level, risk per trip seems to be lowest for TST occupants in all the

cities for the assumed occupancy rates and number of trips per day.

Fatalities associated with each vehicle type accounting for exposure

Figure 21 shows all the fatalities that each vehicle type is associated with per 100,000-vehicle km

per day. The following values have been assumed for distances travelled per day.

• Car: 50 km

• TST: 150 km

• MTW: 25 km

This includes occupant fatalities and those of road users other than the vehicle occupant. For

example, if a motorcycle hits a pedestrian and

the pedestrian dies, then the pedestrian death

will also be associated with the motorcycle.

This index gives a rough idea of the total

number of fatalities that is expected for each

vehicle type given the present traffic conditions

and mode shares. These figures indicate that

the relative low rate for TSTs as compared to

cars is due to the higher exposure of TSTs per

day. These indices appear to indicate that per

km of travel TSTs, MTWs and cars are very

roughly equally harmful for society under

Figure 20.Occupant fatality rates per 10

million trips.

Figure 21. All fatalities associated with

each vehicle category per 100,000 vehicle

km (estimated).

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35

present conditions. Out of these three vehicles motorcycle riders bear the highest risk and it is very

important to focus on their safety (helmet use and daytime running lights). TSTs need improvement for

safety of occupants as well as the VRUs it impacts.

Conclusions from detailed city studies

The total number of vulnerable road user deaths in the six cities range between 84% and 93%, car

occupant fatalities between 2% and 4%, and TST occupants less than 5%, except in Vishakhapatnam

where the proportion for the latter is 8%. These total proportions are similar to those in the megacities

Mumbai and Delhi. Helmet use by MTW riders is not enforced in any of these cities though the use is

mandated by the Motor Vehicles Act 1988 of India. The high rate of MTW fatalities can be reduced

significantly if the existing mandatory helmet laws are enforced in all the cities and laws introduced for

compulsory daytime running lights for MTW.

The largest proportion of fatalities for all road user categories (especially vulnerable road users) are

associated with impacts with buses and trucks and then cars in Vishakhapatnam and Bhopal. This is true

for the other four cities also. The most interesting feature emerging from this analysis is the involvement

of MTW as impacting vehicles for pedestrian, bicyclist, and MTW fatalities in all the six cities. The

proportion of pedestrian fatalities associated with MTW impacts ranges from 8 to 25 per cent of the

total. The involvement of MTWs as impacting vehicles in VRU fatalities may be due to the fact that

pedestrians and bicyclists do not have adequate facilities on arterial roads of these cities and they have

to share the road space (the curb side lane) with MTW riders. Provision of separate and adequate

pedestrian and bicycle lanes in all cities is a prerequisite for RTI control.

MTW and pedestrian deaths are relatively high at 20:00-23:00 when we would expect traffic

volumes to be low. Surveys done in Agra and Ludhiana suggest that due to lower volumes vehicle

velocities can be higher at night, adequate street lighting is not present, and there is very limited

checking of drivers under the influence of alcohol. This suggests that traffic calming methods, better

street lighting and alcohol control would be necessary to control RTI during night time.

Involvement of young children in fatal crashes appears to be low and the reasons for this are not

clear need to be studied. Relative risk of occupants of MTW is the highest but not as high in the high-

income countries. However, the estimated risk to society posed by cars as estimated from total

involvement in fatal crashes seems to be greater than that posed by motorcycles and thee-wheeled

scooter taxis. Further research is necessary to determine the veracity of these findings.

SUMMARY

•

Data show that the number of deaths increased in almost all the cities between 1996 and 2006 and

most cities between 2006 and 2014.

•

Significant reduction in number of deaths were seen in large cities (> 5 m population): Bengaluru,

Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai. The reasons for these reductions are not known. It is

possible that increases in traffic congestion leading to decreases in vehicle speeds may have

contributed to this.

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT © TRIPP IIT DELHI

36

•

In 2011 the average annual death rate for all cities combined was 14.7 per 100,000 persons.

•

For 36 cities where the data can be compared between 2001 and 2011 only 12 saw a decrease in

fatality rates. For most of them the decrease was less than 30%. This is quite an alarming situation,

as in a third of these cities the death rate increased by more than 50% in a period of 10 years.

•

The total number of vulnerable road user deaths in all eight cities studies range between 84% and

93%, car occupant fatalities between 2% and 4%. These proportions are very different from those

reported by NCRB (2015). The NCRB and MoRTH estimates for RTI modal shares appear to suffer

from erroneous coding and should not be used.

•

In all the cities studied the largest proportion of fatalities for all road user categories (especially

vulnerable road users) are associated with impacts with buses and trucks and then cars. The

proportion of pedestrian fatalities associated with MTW impacts ranges from 8 to 25 per cent of the

total.

•

MTW and pedestrian deaths are relatively high at 20:00-23:00 when we would expect traffic

volumes to be low. Surveys done in Agra and Ludhiana suggest that due to lower volumes vehicle

velocities can be higher at night, adequate street lighting is not present, and there is very limited

checking of drivers under the influence of alcohol.

•

Occupant fatalities per vehicle decrease in the following order – TST:MTW:Car.

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37

4. Intercity highways

INTRODUCTION

Government of India has launched a major programme to expand and improve highways in India

since 2000. Seventy thousand kilometres of National Highways (NH) are maintained by the National

Highway Authority (NHAI). Through the National Highway Development Programme (NHDP), NHAI is

upgrading nearly 49,000 km of NH. Twenty four thousand km of highways have been upgraded.

Upgradation includes increasing the number of lanes (e.g. from four to six), converting undivided roads

to divided highways, and adding paved shoulders to 2 lane roads. The major motivation behind highway

upgradation has been improving inter-city and interstate connectivity through capacity enhancement as

well as improving highway safety.

TRAFFIC CRASHES ON INDIAN HIGHWAYS

Highway safety remains a major concern after nearly 50% of completion of NHDP projects. Figure

22 shows the proportion of RTI fatalities on different categories of roads and the proportion of road

length for each category (MoRTH, 2015, Transport Research Wing, 2015). NH comprise only 15% of the

total length of roads in India but account for 33% of the fatalities. Fatality rate per km of road is the

highest on expressways (1.8 deaths per km per year) and NH come next with 0.58 deaths per km

annually (Figure 23). The relatively high death rate on NH could be because they carry a significant

proportion of passenger and freight traffic (MoRTH, 2015, Transport Research Wing, 2014). However,

since details of vehicle km travelled on various categories of highways are not available, it is not possible

to make a comparison based on exposure rates. Expressways had a length of only 1,000 km in the

country in 2014 but a high death rate of 1.8 per km per year. This should be a cause for concern.

Recent research studies have reported fatal crash rates (fatalities per km) for three NH (NH-1, NH-8

and NH 2) as 3.08 crashes/km/year on six-lane NH-1, followed by 2.54 crashes/km/year on four-lane NH-

Figure 22. Proportion of RTI fatalities

in 2014 on different categories of roads

and the proportion of road length for

each category (Source: MoRTH, 2015,

Transport Research Wing, 2015).

Figure 23. RTI fatality rate per km of

road per year for different category of

roads (Source: MoRTH, 2015, Transport

Research Wing, 2015).

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT © TRIPP IIT DELHI

38

24 bypass, and 0.72 crashes/km/year on two-lane NH-8 (Naqvi, H. M. and Tiwari, G., 2015).

CRASH PATTERNS

A detailed study of 35 selected locations on highways reported traffic crash patterns using two

different methods to collect road crash data (Tiwari, G. et al., 2000):

1. Analysis of road accident First Information Reports (FIRs) for a period of one year from the

police stations in the area.

2. Analysis of data collected by specially trained informers for a period of three months for a 50-

km section of the highway at each location. The informers were instructed to travel over the

section every day and collect information on accidents occurring on that stretch.

The two methods of data collection gave the following insights:

1. The data available from the police records misses out many minor injury and single vehicle

accidents.

2. The data collected by the informers missed many fatal accidents involving pedestrians and

bicyclists. This is probably because the vehicles involved in these cases are often able to drive

away because they do not suffer much damage. As such there is no evidence left at the crash

scene and the informer may miss the case when he travels on the stretch of the highway after a

day.

A more recent study investigated police reports of fatal crashes on selected locations on 2 lane

NH8, 4lane NH24, and 6laneNH1 (Tiwari, G., 2015). The results for modal shares of those killed on these

locations are given in Table 9. In the 1998 study of highways the proportions of motor vehicle occupants

and vulnerable road users were 32 and 68 per cent respectively, whereas the numbers for urban areas

were 5%-10% vehicle occupants and the rest were vulnerable road users (Table 9). Though the motor

vehicle fatalities are higher on highways than in urban areas, as would be expected, the differences are

not as high as in western countries. A vast majority (68%) of those getting killed on highways in India

comprise vulnerable road users and this fact should be the guiding factor in future design

considerations. Data from three highway segments from 2009-2013 show a similar pattern. Pedestrian

and MTW proportions are very high except on the six-lane highway where the proportion of truck

Table 9. Modal share of road traffic fatalities in Mumbai, Delhi and four rural

highway locations in India.

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39

victims is much higher.

Table 10 shows the impacting vehicle in fatal crashes on highways. This shows that as far as vehicle

involvement is concerned the patterns are very similar in both cases. Trucks and buses are involved in

about 70% of fatal crashes in both rural and urban areas. This is again very different from western

countries where there are significant differences in rural and urban crash patterns.

The above aggregate data indicate that crash patterns on rural and urban roads are more similar

than would be expected based on western experience. This is probably because of the settlement

patterns in our countryside where there is high-density habitation along the highways, which results in

the use of many sections of the highway as urban arterial roads. Therefore, safety would be enhanced

mainly by separating local and through traffic on different roads, or by separating slow and fast traffic

on the same road, and by providing convenient and safe road crossing facilities to vulnerable road users.

Table 11 shows the distribution of crash types by type of highway and type of crash (Tiwari, G. et al.,

2000). The statistics for single lane may not be representative because of the small sample size. It is

interesting to note that there are no major differences in the proportion of overturn accidents in 2-lane

and 4-lane roads. Similarly there are no major differences in the proportion of head-on collisions on

different types of 2-lane roads. However, it is very surprising that on 4-lane divided roads head-on

collisions comprise 19% of the crashes. Divided 4-lane roads are justified on the basis that these would

eliminate the occurrence of head-on collisions. The fact that head-on collisions are common on divided

roads means that many vehicles are going the wrong way on divided highways. This is probably because

tractor and other vehicles travel the wrong way when they exit from roadside businesses and the cut in

the median is too far away. This issue needs to be considered seriously and guidelines need to be

Table 10. Proportion of impacting vehicle type in fatal crashes on selected

highway locations

.

Table 11. Crash types by type of highways, 1997-2000(Tiwari, G. et al., 2000).

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40

developed for the placement of cuts in the median or for providing under/overpasses for vehicles at

convenient locations.

Table 11 and 12 describe the types of crashes that occured on different types of highways in 1997-

2000 and in the last five years (2010-2014). The types of crashes that occur on hill roads, where run-off

crashes dominate, are clearly different from those that occur on other types of highways.

Rear-end collisions (including collisions with parked vehicles) are high on all types of highways

including 4-lane highways. This shows that even though more space is available on wider roads rear-end

crashes do not reduce. This is probably due to poor visibility of vehicles rather than road design itself.

Countermeasures would include making vehicles more visible with the provision of reflectors and

roadside lighting wherever possible.

Impacts with pedestrians and bicycles have a high rate on all roads including 4-lane and six-lane

divided highways. The proportion is lower on 2-lane highways with wider (2.5m) paved shoulders (see

Table 10). For these type of crashes to be reduced the following countermeasures need to be

experimented with: physical segregation of slow and fast traffic, provision of 2.5m paved shoulders with

physical separation devices like cats eyes, provision of frequent and convenient under-passes (at the

same level as surrounding land) for pedestrians, bicycles and other non-motorised transport, and traffic

calming in semi-urban and habited areas.

Collisions with fixed objects are low only on 4-lane divided highways. Provision of adequate run-off

area without impediments and design of appropriate medians are obviously very important on

highways.

OTHER STUDIES

Saija, K. K. and Patel, C. D. (2002)and Shrinivas, P. L. L. (2004) analysed road traffic crash data

obtained from the police records for the state of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu respectively at a macro level

but considered national highway data in combination with other roads. Kumar, R. P. et al. (2004) have

done a study of crashes on Dindigul-Palani section of NH 209 and report that about 50% of the crashes

involved buses and 25% of the victims were pedestrians and that two stretches of the highway had a

higher number of crashes than other sections. A study of crashes on NH-8 passing through Valsad

District found that crashes were increasing at a rate of 3.9% annually, rear end crashes comprised 40%

and that heavy vehicles were involved in the largest number of cases (Saija, K. K. and Patel, C. D., 2002).

Table 12. Crash types by type of highways 2010-2014 (Tiwari, G., 2015).

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41

These studies inform us that highways have some stretches that can be identified as being associated

with a higher number of crashes than other locations; heavy vehicles are involved in a larger number of

crashes than lighter vehicles; and vulnerable road users comprise a significant proportion of those killed

on national highways. However, none of these studies provide information on speeds, modal shares and

highway design and their association with road traffic fatalities.

Shaheem, S. et al. (2006) have published two detailed studies on road traffic crashes on the Aluva-

Cherthala and Pallichal-Kaliyikkavila sections NH- 47 in Kerala. For the Pallichal-Kaliyikkavila section the

authors evaluate the impact of four-laning of 38.5 km of the highway on road traffic crashes. They also

report that heavy vehicles had a high involvement and pedestrians and cyclists were 28% of the victims.

The most important finding of this study is that the fatality rate based on the volume capacity ratio is

more than three times higher on the four-lane section compared to two lane sections. The fatality rate

based on population density of the associated regions was higher on the four-lane section compared to

two lane sections and conversion of two-lane to four-lane resulted in increase in the fatality rate from

41-51 % on the high crash rate sections.

In summary, it is clear that crash rates on intercity roads are high and not reducing. The

construction of 4 lane divided highways (without access control) does not seem to have reduced fatality

rates and vulnerable road users still account for a number of crashes. The mix of slow and fast moving

vehciles on highways creates serious problems as speed differentials can account for significant

increases in crash rates. High incidence of fatal rear-end crashes indicates a problem of lack of visibility

and conspicuity of parked vehicles. There is clearly a strong case for redesign of intercity roads with

separation of slow and fast modes. The needs of road users on local short distance trips will have to be

accounted for to reduce the probability of head-on crashes due to them going the wrong way on divided

highways by provision of safe road crossings at convenient distance. Solutions for many of these issues

are not readily available and research studies necessary for evolution of new designs.

SUMMARY

•

National Highways comprise only 15% of the total length of roads in India but account for 33% of the

fatalities. Fatality rate per km of the road is the highest on expressways (1.8 deaths per km per year)

and NH come next with 0.58 deaths per km annually

•

Expressways had a length of only 1,000 km in the country in 2014 but a high death rate of 1.8 per

km per year. This should be a cause for concern.

•

A vast majority (68%) of those getting killed on highways in India comprise vulnerable road users

and this fact should be the guiding factor in future design considerations.

•

Data from three highway segments from 2009-2013 show a similar pattern. Pedestrian and MTW

proportions are very high except on six-lane highway where the proportion of truck victims is much

higher.

•

Trucks and buses are involved in about 70 percent of fatal crashes in both rural and urban areas.

This is again very different from western countries where there are significant differences in rural

and urban crash patterns.

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT © TRIPP IIT DELHI

42

•

On 4-lane divided roads head-on collisions comprise 19% of the crashes. Divided 4-lane roads are

justified on the basis that these would eliminate the occurrence of head-on collisions. The fact this is

not occurring means that many vehicles are going the wrong way on divided highways. This is

probably because tractor and other vehicles go the wrong way when they exit from roadside

businesses and the cut in the median is too far away.

•

Rear end collisions (including collisions with parked vehicles) are high on all types of highways

including 4-lane highways. This shows that even though more space is available on wider roads rear-

end crashes do not reduce. This is probably due to poor visibility of vehicles rather than road design

itself. Countermeasures would include making vehicles more visible with the provision of reflectors

and roadside lighting wherever possible.

•

Following countermeasures need to be experimented with: physical segregation of slow and fast

traffic, provision of 2.5m paved shoulders with physical separation devices like cats eyes, provision

of frequent and convenient under-passes (at the same level as surrounding land) for pedestrians,

bicycles and other non-motorised transport, and traffic calming in semi-urban and habited areas.

•

Safety would be enhanced mainly by separating local and through traffic on different roads, or by

separating slow and fast traffic on the same road, and by providing convenient and safe road

crossing facilities to vulnerable road users.

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5. Status of research in road safety

INTRODUCTION

One way to understand the status of knowledge production in different countries is to examine the

number of scholarly articles on different subjects originating from those countries. Five key areas in the

field of transportation research are

1. Road Safety

2. Civil Engineering projects related to development in transport facilities

3. Emissions, covering air and noise pollution

4. Railways

5. Transportation planning, oriented towards developing the transport facilities

For each of the areas unique keywords were used and a search done on the online search engine

Scopus™ . The results of the search for the countries India, China and Brazil are shown in Table 13 and

the output normalised for population (2011) shown in Table 14. These tables show that not only does

India fare poorly in terms of total output, when normalised for population levels in 2011, India’s output

appears poor in comparison with both Brazil and China. Even more worrisome is the fact that the gap

between India and China has widened considerably in the past decade (Table 15) especially on topics

dealing with railway technology.

If we assume that research output may have some relationship with per capita income and number

of people in each society, even then these results show India is doing much worse than China and not

even as well as Brazil.

Table 13. Number of academic articles published originating

in India, China, and Brazil in the period 2006-2010. (Source:

Scopus™).

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44

It is possible that these data do not contain studies published from India which are not included in

indexed journals, and that the quality of studies from India may be better than many originating from

China. However, the gaps are so large that we need to take corrective measures on an urgent basis. The

number of papers from China per-person per US$ per-capita income are more than three times greater

than that from India in all areas. This means that if we want to catch up with China in ten years with

their present levels of productivity, we will have to grow at more than 10 per cent per year. However,

this would not be adequate enough for the kind of growth we need in knowledge generation and

innovation to put in place systems in the next ten years that serve us well for the next thirty years. It

would be safe to assume that we need to plan for a dramatic increase in human resource development,

research output and creation of jobs for highly trained professionals.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF INDIAN RESEARCH REPORTS

A systematic search was done using definitive road traffic accident keywords (road safety India,

accident in India, and accident due to speeding in India, road accidents due to road geometry in Indian

highways, vehicular growth and road safety in India) on Science Direct and Google Scholar. The papers

were then classified into 4 broad themes -Urban areas, Highways, National Trends and Public

transportation. The search found eighty-one studies that were published in peer reviewed journals,

conference or institutional reports. Since 2000 the number of publications has shown an increasing

trend and according to a report, India contributed only 0.7 per cent papers on road traffic injuries.

This review was undertaken to synthesize the available published studies on road safety done in

India in the period 1970-2015 and categorize them according to four themes - urban, highways, national

trends, public transport. This section includes a systematic review of the published papers according to

the guidelines of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)

statement (Moher, D. et al., 2009). The electronic database searches included Google Scholar and

Elsevier. A hand search enabled a look through the bibliographies of the retrieved articles. The search

screened published and unpublished articles, working papers, dissertations, reports documented or

published between 1970 and 2015.Only peer reviewed papers were selected. The search keywords were

entered in all searchable, subjects’ specific fields (title, keyword, and abstract), medical subject heading

(MeSH) and free-text terms, different for various search engines. The keywords that were used are: road

Table 14. Number of publications in the

period 2006-2010 per 100 million

population.

Table 14. Ratio of journal papers

published by China and India in the

periods 1961 -2005 and 2006-2010.

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45

safety India, accident in India, accident due to speeding in India, road accidents due to road geometry in

Indian highways, vehicular growth and road safety in India.

The references were included in the final review through discussions. Data were reviewed for

duplication after the extraction was completed and entered in Microsoft Excel. The inference of data in

a statistical manner could not be performed as the dataset obtained were heterogeneous in nature and

hence qualitative analysis of the extracted dataset was instead undertaken in the study.

Results

Following outcome measures were noted:

•

Prevalence of different modes/factors on accident rates in different environment.

•

Exposure of RTA’s on different road users.

•

Impact of RTCs and their related burden (i.e., number of accidents, fatalities, injuries, socioeconomic

burden, etc.).

India despite having the distinction of being the second most populous country contributed only

0.7% articles on road traffic injuries. It had less than one article on

road traffic injuries per 1,000 road traffic-related deaths (Borse, N.

and Hyder, A. A., 2009).

Sixty one papers that met the above criteria were included for

analysis. Table 15 shows the number of papers by publication type

and Table 16 by year of publication. The reviewed papers had the

following characteristics

•

In urban theme 31 % of the studies had statistical analysis

involving modelling.

•

In highway theme only 36 % studies had statistical analysis

involving modelling.

•

In public transportation theme 25 % studies had statistical

analysis involving modelling.

•

In National trends 25% studies had statistical analysis

involving modelling.

A summary of the papers is included in Appendix 1.

SUMMARY

•

India despite having the distinction of being the second most populous country contributed only

0.7% articles on road traffic injuries.

•

When normalised for population levels in 2011, India’s output appears poor in comparison with

both Brazil and China. The gap between India and China has widened considerably in the past

decade.

Table 15. Number of papers

on road safety published in

India 1970-2015.

Table 16. Number of papers

on road safety published in

India 1970-2015.

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46

•

The number of papers from China per-person per US$ per-capita income are more than three times

greater than that from India in all areas. This means that if we want to catch up with China in ten

years with their present levels of productivity, we will have to grow at more than 10 per cent per

year.

•

A review of peer reviewed papers on road safety published from India indicated that only about one

third of them included statistical analysis and modelling.

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47

APPENDIX 1

Highway Theme

SN Title/year/author/j

ournal( conf/report

)

Objective

Recommendations/Results

Statistica

l Analysis

1

Effect of road

characteristics on

accident rates on

Rural highways in

India (Kadiyali, L. et

al., 1983)

An investigation on a limited scale was

undertaken to establish relationships

between Accident rate and some

roadway And traffic volume Factors.

The study was taken up intensively on

the Bombay-Pune road, which has a

Mixture of road Geometry along its

length.

Some of the factors responsible for Road Accidents

on rural highways in India are Road geometry,

pavement width, Traffic volume and number of

Intersections per unit length of road

Yes

2

Analysis of road

accidents on

national highways in

Nasik district

(Baviskar, S., 1998)

This paper discusses the high accident

rates on National Highway (NH)

sections in the Nashik District of India;

The paper discusses: (1) the spatial

trends of accidents on NH 3 and NH

50, both of which pass through

Nashik;

(2) the results of a traffic census on

important roads in Nashik for 1981-

90; (3) observations on the NH 50; (4)

the time distribution of accidents on

the National Highways; (5) the

seasonal trend of fatal, serious, and

minor accidents on the National

Highways; (6) analysis of accidents for

different

Categories of roads; (7) observations

of the physical features And road

conditions of different sections of NH

3 and NH 50; And (8) the accident

environments on the NH 3 and NH 50.

The results of the study emphasize that the main

safety initiatives on Indian National Highways

should be specific very local improvements of

accident black spots, correction of short geometric

curves, provision of paved shoulders, increase of

sight Distance, removal of roadside Hazards,

flattening sides and slopes, And placing guard rails

on high embankment and bridge approaches.

Yes

3

Road safety

considerations for

national highways

(Sharma, A. and

Dua, L., 2000)

This paper aims to study the causes of

road accident on National highways in

India and provide recommendations.

Specific causes of accidents include: (1) median

kerb stones in dual carriageways and poor visibility

of kerb stones; (2) staged road construction; (3)

lack of maintenance of road signs; (4) driver errors;

(5) plantation of trees in rights of way; (6)

depressed side shoulders; (7) contractor errors; (8)

bridge railings; (9) poor drainage; and (10)

haphazard crossing of roads by pedestrians and

cattle.

This article makes 20 recommendations for

improving road safety, including three types of

road design improvements, black spot

identification and improvement, traffic barriers,

road safety audit, advanced warning systems, road

patrolling, training in first aid, uniform geometric

design, and roadside amenities.

No

4

Characteristics of

road accidents on

lower category of

roads in India

(Mittal, N. and

Sarin, S., 2001)

The objective Characteristics of road

accidents on lower category of roads

in india Accidents on rural roads in

India are not well documented.

From 1983-1989, lower category roads had the

highest proportion of road accidents. Studies in the

relatively prosperous state of Haryana in 1992 are

described. Accidents involving vulnerable road

users were higher on lower category roads than on

state highways. Although speeds were lower on

No

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48

lower category roads, the proportion of vulnerable

road user was higher and injuries in this group

were likely to be severe. Hit and run cases were

more frequent on lower category roads

Recommendations include better accident

reporting, strengthening road shoulders, pavement

repair, making cyclists more conspicuous, and

educating road users. By-passes and better

emergency services were also suggested.

5

Accident study on

national highway - 5

between anakapalli

to Visakhapatnam

(Rao, B. S. et al.,

2005)

The Institute has undertaken a study

on NH-5 between Anakapalli to

Visakhapatnam during the year 2003

and it runs through urban, semi urban

and rural areas. The accident data for

the last five years was collected from

the concerned police station and

analyzed thereafter. The aim of this

paper has been to analyze the cause

of accident and provide

recommendations.

The most frequent accident involved two wheelers

(35%) followed by goods vehicles (23%), cars (17%),

autos (15%), Buses (9%) and unknown vehicles

(1%). The reasons for the accidents can be

attributed to the lack of signage, raised median

cover with trees/bushes, making pedestrians not

visible to driver, improper design of pedestrian

crossing, frequent median openings, and lack of

enforcement to control wrong side movements.

Poorly designed access roads from the adjacent

areas of the highway are also leading to frequent

conflicts between local traffic (mostly two

wheelers) and through traffic (goods vehicles).

Proper sign boards such as Informatory, warning

and caution sign should be placed as per IRC

specifications to guide the road user to perceive

the situation. These include curve ahead, access

road signs along with delineators and retro-

reflective markers along the curve. Further it is

suggested to provide acceleration and deceleration

lanes. It was suggested to the National Highway

Authority of India (NHAI) to close both the median

openings to minimize the accident, as the fuel

filling facility is available on both sides. Further, it is

suggested to remove encroachment on National

Highway and provide improved junction geometrics

and high mast to improve illumination during night.

No

6

Minor

improvements of

highways for better

road safety (Sarin, S.

et al., 2005)

This paper discusses the Project types

undertaken under minor

enhancement objectives are described

with reference to the situation in the

UK and USA. Criteria for minor

improvements are listed. The

relationships between safety and key

road features are considered. The

planning and designing process for a

minor improvement project is

outlined.

Common road safety issues requiring minor

improvements are described: roadway

improvements (horizontal alignment, vertical

alignment, sight distance, cross-sectional elements,

channelisers, medians and service roads,

intersections, surface pavement), roadside

improvements (crash barriers, fixed objects,

bridges and culverts, relocation of access, drainage)

and operational road improvements.

Experience has shown that the following low-cost

minor improvements could be highly effective:

improvements in traffic control devices (signs,

markings, delineators), minor physical alterations

to the intersection layout, drainage improvements,

provision of crash barriers and railings, improved

access control, and improvements to median

openings.

No

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7

Analysis of Road

Traffic Accidents on

NH45, Kanchipuram

District (Tamil Nadu,

India) (Rajaraman,

R., 2009)

The primary objective was to collect

and analyze India-based traffic crash

data to begin to create a sound basis

for decision making for improving

safety on India’s roadways. A

secondary objective was to establish a

standardized methodology for

collecting and analyzing crash data,

specific to Indian roads.

Findings show that front-to-rear collisions, mainly

involving heavy trucks and buses, caused due to

slowing down, stopping, breaking down or

overtaking account for 59% of the accidents.

Front-Rear Collisions, which form a significant

number of accidents, occurred mainly at U-turns

and on General Roads. U-turns and sections of

highways close to facilities/amenities are black

spots for heavy truck accidents, as trucks tend to

slow down or stop in these areas.

Proper design of U-turns and implementation of

acceleration and deceleration lanes, as per

specifications and standards laid down, can help

mitigate accidents and injuries. Providing sufficient

shoulder widths, as per specifications, for heavy

trucks to park safely will help reduce front-rear

collisions due to stopped or parked trucks. Effective

driver communication, through clear and well

placed sign boards, warning signs and information

signs, can help drivers make decisions well in

advance and give proper indications to other

vehicles around them.

No

8

Analysis of In-Depth

Crash Data on

Indian National

Highways and

Impact of Road

Design on Crashes

and Injury Severity

(Padmanaban, J. et

al., 2010)

Analysis of In-Depth Crash Data on

Indian National Highways and Impact

of Road Design on Crashes and Injury

Severity

Researchers carried out on-site crash

investigations and in-depth crash data

collection for a period of 45 to 60 days

on four 2-lane undivided

highways( NH47 , NH209 , NH47

Bypass , NH67 ) and a 4-lane divided

highway( NH45).

Based on 76 crashes examined, researchers found a

shift of crash pattern from head-on collisions on

undivided 2- lane highways to front-rear collisions

on divided 4-lane highways. The top three vehicle

types involved in the crashes are: trucks (44),

passenger cars (27) and motorized two-wheelers

(24). M2Ws (22) are the highest vehicle type

involved in crashes in which at least one rider was

fatally injured or hospitalized. This indicates that

M2W riders, pedestrians and bicyclists are the top

three vulnerable road users.

These crashes usually occurred at junctions with

bus stops (58%) or near places of interest (38%)

such as temples, shops, etc. Crossing was the

pedestrian activity in 69% of the crashes. The

factors influencing these impacts are speeding

vehicles, lack of speed control devices and

markings at pedestrian crossings, and lack of

infrastructure to separate pedestrians and

bicyclists from motorized vehicles. Apart from

passenger cars (39%), minibuses/minitrucks (23%)

and trucks (15%), pedestrian impacts also involved

M2Ws (23%).

Road design at junctions/gaps in median, entry and

exits of highway amenities, and the availability of

clear signage and advance warning to drivers needs

to be looked into. The presence of paved shoulders

seems to reduce the occurrence of head-on

collisions, as the extra space allows vehicles to

move out of the way of overtaking vehicles. No

head-on collisions were observed on divided 4-lane

highways due to the presence of a wide median,

No

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50

indicating the effectiveness of medians/divided

roads in preventing head-on collisions. When the

front-side collisions were analyzed for common

problems, road alignment and design came out to

be the most predominant factor involved.

9

Random parameter

models for accident

prediction on two-

lane undivided

highways in India

(Dinu, R. and

Veeraragavan, A.,

2011)

The present study is an attempt to

employ random parameter modeling

for accident prediction on two-lane

undivided rural highways in India.

Three years of accident history, from

nearly 200 km of highway segments, is

used to calibrate and validate the

models.

Hourly traffic volume, length of highway segment,

proportion of cars and motorized two-wheelers in

traffic, driveway density, width of shoulder, and

horizontal and vertical curvatures were found to be

significantly influencing day-time accident

frequencies. While increase in proportion of cars

and width of shoulder were found to decrease the

accident frequencies, increase in the other

variables resulted in an increase in accidents.

In case of night-time accidents, hourly traffic

volume, length of highway segment, proportion of

buses, cars, and trucks, driveway density, and

vertical curvature were found to be significant.

Here the proportion of cars and trucks in traffic

were found to cause a decrease in accidents, while

all other variables had a positive coefficient,

showing an increase in accident frequencies.

Yes

10 Road safety audit

for four lane

national highways

(Jain, S. et al., 2011)

Objectives of study

I. To develop a methodology for Road

Safety Audit for four lane National

Highways.

Ii. To develop a model for

identification of safety influencing

parameters in minimizing likelihood

accident rate on selected section of

four lane National Highways network.

Iii. To examine safety features

adopted in the selected section of four

lane National Highway-58 and find out

deficiencies in the road network which

led to accident and safety hazards to

road users. Iv. To identify the speed

limits matching with the vehicles

speed on existing road profile of the

highway section.

The stretch from Km 75.00 to Km

130.00 of National Highway 58 had

been selected for candidate analysis.

From data simulation, it found that Road Markings,

Condition of Shoulder, Traffic Volume, Spot Speed,

Median Opening and Carriageway condition were

main parameters for causing accidents. It was also

seen that slow moving traffics were creating traffic

hazards for fast moving traffic as it always occupied

the innermost lane of highway

Service roads should be provided for the entire

length of four lane roads in order to separate slow

moving traffic from fast moving traffic. All

unauthorized median openings should closed and

adequate provisions for crossing local people be

made on priority. All undeveloped major and minor

intersections must be developed with adequate

lighting provisions as quickly as possible since

maximum accidents were observed on these

locations. Pedestrian guardrail should be provided

all along the footpath of service road and at bus

stops.

Yes

11 IRAP India Four

States Road Safety

Report (Rogers, L.,

2012)

The project was designed to assist the

governments of four Indian states:

Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat and

Karnataka to assess road

infrastructure-related risk on 3,000km

of high-risk roads and identify

economically viable road safety

countermeasures for implementation

under the World Bank financed

upgrades.

The road attribute data shows that the majority of

the survey was conducted along a two-lane, single

carriageway rural network, with very little physical

separation between opposing flows. Roadside

hazards are numerous, with most of the survey

length having hazardous objects within 5m of the

running lane and limited road side protection.

Provision for vulnerable road users is poor with no

motorcycle or bicycle facilities present and

insufficient footpath provision and crossing

facilities where pedestrian numbers are high.

No

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51

The recommendations primarily seek to improve

facilities for vulnerable road users and to reduce

the risk of head-on, run-off and intersection

crashes for motorised users. Along with roadside

safety improvements and the segregation of

opposing flows, intersection upgrades also featured

prominently in all Safer Roads Investment Plans

(srips) with roundabouts, signalisation, turn lanes

and improved delineation providing good returns

on investment. Road surface upgrades, paved

shoulder widening, lane widening and improved

delineation, all of which had been independently

identified by the design team for inclusion in the

rehabilitation works using IRC (Indian Roads

Congress) standards. This meant that the road

safety component could be used to include

improvements such as speed reducing features in

urban areas, footpaths and pedestrian crossings,

dedicated motorcycle lanes and turning lanes at

intersections.

The analysis found that a combined investment for

the four states of 27 billion rupees would prevent

almost 125,000 deaths and serious injuries and

save close to 120 billion rupees in crash costs

avoided. This represents a 40% reduction in deaths

and serious injuries based on current estimates.

12 Pedestrian Accident

Prediction Model

for Rural Road

(Sharma, A. and

Landge, V., 2012)

The specific objectives of studies are:

• Development of Correlation

between road accidents and

geometric design parameters of

highway along with traffic operating

characteristics for pedestrian accident

• Evolving engineering remedial

measures for improving safety on the

selected stretch.

• Practical recommendations for

improving traffic safety on the said

highway.

Road geometry and traffic data was

collected through field studies and

traffic count survey for a road length

of 100km between Amravati City and

Nagpur City of Maharashtra State in

India.

National Highway No 6 experiences the crash rate

as high as 1.62 accidents per year per km .It has a

very high rate of fatality 0.38 death /km/year .The

highway share heavy vehicles, passenger cars , two

wheelers, animal drawn carts, cattle, and

pedestrians. Heavy vehicles are involved in 78% of

the accidents, passenger cars are involved in 48%

of accidents, two wheelers are involved in 62% of

accidents and pedestrians are involved in 21% of

accidents

Pedestrian safety is greatly influenced by number

of access points per unit length of the road. Each

additional access point per kilometer of road length

may increase accident rate by more than 100%. Ii.

Shoulder width is also a highly influential factor

affecting pedestrian safety. Additional 1m width of

shoulder will reduce the accident by 50%. Iii.

Additional lane width of 1m may reduce the

accident by 50%.

Some remedies are

Access to main highways should be properly

designed. Ii. Sufficient shoulder width or provision

of safe walking places along the highways should

be provided. Iii. Elevated and visible designated

areas for crossing of roads in all possible places. Iv.

Separation of pedestrian movement from heavy

moving traffic in all possible places. V. Speed

control by road design, traffic calming and

enforcement on highways, near traffic generators

Yes

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT © TRIPP IIT DELHI

52

like educational institutions, business places and

hospitals.

13 Characteristics of

Fatal Road Traffic

Accidents on Indian

Highways (Narayan,

S. et al.)

Characteristics of Fatal Road Traffic

Accidents on Indian Highways. A total

of 167 accident investigations have

been carried out in the Coimbatore

District of the state of Tamil Nadu

over a period of one year. Data from

crash investigations of 71 fatal

accidents involving 80 fatalities (66

vehicle occupants and 14 pedestrians)

is analyzed in this paper.

Fatal accidents account for 43% of all accidents

investigated. Motorized two-wheelers (M2Ws)

constitute 60% of vehicles with fatal casualties

while passenger cars constitute 30%. Majority of

the impacts were head-on frontals (35%) followed

by pedestrian impacts (18%). M2W collisions with

trucks and cars constitute 35% of fatal accidents.

Most of the fatal casualties were under 40 years of

age. The injury severity (MAIS) ranged from MAIS=3

(21%) to MAIS=6 (10%) while 46% of the casualties

suffered fatal injuries at MAIS=4

No

14 Crash Prediction for

Multilane Highway

Stretch in India

(Chikkakrishna, N. K.

et al., 2013)

This paper documents the application

of Bayesian modeling techniques for

road traffic crash analysis on a sample

of Indian National Highways. Poisson-

Gamma Hierarchical Bayes and

Poisson-Weibull Bayesian models

were applied to the collected crash

data.

The stretch from Km 76.00 to Km

130.00 of National Highway 58 has

been selected for candidate analysis.

The selected highway stretch has been

newly reconstructed and upgraded to

four lanes. The two important

obligatory points on the study area

are Meerut and Muzaffarnagar of the

highway in the state of Uttar-Pradesh,

India

The following general conclusions are drawn.

1. Median opening has major influence on the

occurrence of crashes. 2. The traffic flow is also

showing direct impact on occurrence of crashes as

justified practically. 3. From the analysis, it has

been observed that as access roads to the main

highway increases the chances of crashes on

highways will be more which is as per realistic

experience. 4. Road side developments also

increase the movement and hinder the smooth

traffic movement which is also justified. Whereas

the commercial activities is showing negative

impact as there is enough lateral clearance from

the highway shoulder for ingress and egress of the

vehicles.

Yes

15 Accident Study on

Identified Roads of

Kurukshetra

(Chaurasia, V. K. and

Sachdev, S.)

A study hasbeen taken up on a

selected stretch of SH-6, the

Saharanpur-Kurukshetra road,

between Pipli to 3rd Gate of

Kurukshetra University in Haryana to

find out accident severity index,

weighted accident severity

index,accident prone areas,peak hour

time of accident,total number of

accident per year and involvement of

different type of vehicles and

pedestrians.

The pedestrians and the two wheelers seem to be

the most affected section sharing a percentage of

39 and 43 respectively of the victims of total

accidents. The bi-cycles and cars are equally

affected by the accidents and their share in victims

is 5% each. The percentage share of three wheelers

is 4%.

The 2-wheelers and cars have maximum

involvement in accidents having a percentage of

32% and 28% respectively, which is more in

comparison to other type of vehicles. The

percentage of accidents by bus and truc ks are 10%

and 11%. The minimum involvement is by3-

wheelers and tractors having a share of 4% and 5%

Based on the study, main reasons for this large

number of accidents are lack of traffic signals,

parking areas, markings and geometric designs of

road. To overcome these reasons, some

suggestions are provided with conclusion to reduce

the number of accidents and save the lives of

human over the selected stree

• Road design and geometric improvements to

compensate for inadequacies of road users such as:

O Designing of road profile network

No

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53

O Stopping sight distance

O Overtaking sight distance

O Pavement width

O Footpath & Shoulder

O Hump near the college and other place and

using reflectors on dangerous zone

Accident black spot investigation and rectification

through road design. By providing Traffic signal for

controlling the traffic movement as per

requirement at black spot point and control the

road accident in Kurukshetra. • Traffic police for

controlling the traffic • Design of road junctions, •

Traffic guidance, road signs, speed limit posts, and

other traffic control devices andwarning signs for

road users • Road pavement markings,

construction of footpaths/cycle tracks, bus bays,

truck parking complexes, and other way side

amenities, etc

16 An In-Depth Study

of Motorized Two-

Wheeler Accidents

in India(Arjun, P. et

al., 2014)

An In-Depth Study of Motorized Two-

Wheeler Accidents in India

Of these 670 crashes, 182 were M2W crashes for

which injury records were available. 72% (134) of

these M2Ws were motorcycles and 28% (48) were

scooters and mopeds. The majority of the collision

partners for motorcycle accidents were cars (36%)

and heavy vehicles (36%), 22% of the riders were

young (18- 23 years old), and 83% of the

motorcycle riders were not helmeted.It is expected

that increased law enforcement, infrastructure

development, proper helmet use training and

design/safety standards for helmets would mitigate

injuries to M2W riders in India

No

17 Burden, pattern and

outcomes of road

traffic injuries in a

rural district of India

(Gururaj, G. et al.,

2014)

The objective of the present report is

to describe the burden, pattern and

outcomes of road crashes and current

status of trauma care for rtis in

Tumkur a rural district of South India.

The ratio of fatal to nonfatal rtis registered in the

entire district was 1:5 for the year as per police

reports.

Motorcyclists (drivers and pillions) comprised the

major category of road users injured and killed in

road crashes constituting 45% and 34% of fatal and

non-fatal crashes, respectively. This was closely

followed by pedestrians to the extent of 20% and

29% of fatal and non-fatal crashes, respectively

Passengers and drivers of heavy vehicles (like lorry,

buses and trucks) constituted 11% of fatal and 10%

of non-fatal injuries. Among fatal crashes, nearly

10% were drivers and occupants of three-wheeled

vehicles. Pedestrians were commonly hit by heavy

vehicles like buses, lorries and trucks (61%),

followed by motor cars (16%) and two wheelers

(14%) in fatal crashes. The absence of traffic

separators especially on the highways is a

noticeable feature in the district particularly in

select stretches.

No

18 Effects of highway

geometric elements

on accident

modeling/ 2014

(Garnaik, M. M.,

2014)

Objective was to study Effects of

highway geometric elements on

accident modeling .

The study was conducted on two road

segments

( National highway 23 , 22, 87

Statistical analysis indicated that, several highway

geometric parameters are very significant to cause

accident in the highway. Highway alignment

geometric elements such as radius, superelevation,

k-value, vertical gradient and sight

distance/visibility are very significant in causing

Yes

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT © TRIPP IIT DELHI

54

&200 )from plain & rolling terrain

highway and two road segments from

mountainous & steep terrain highway

within the rural area of the Indian

Territory. Two Highway Accident Rate

Prediction Models (HARPMPRT and

HARPMMST) were developed due to

the complexity of geometric elements

of rural highway on different terrain

conditions which take horizontal

radius, superelevation, K-value,

vertical gradient and visibility as input

variables and Accident Rate (AR) as

output variables.

accident both in plain & rolling and mountainous &

steep terrain highway. However, deflection angle,

horizontal arc length, rate of change of

superelevation and vertical curve length are

insignificant to cause accident in both plain &

rolling and mountainous & steep terrain highway.

19 Coimbatore Rural

Road Accident Study

(2015)

The report not only identifies these

“contributing factors” but also ranks

them based on the number of

accidents these factors have

influenced in Coimbatore. This ranking

is to help policy makers, decision

makers and road safety stakeholders

in planning cost effective road safety

investments using data-driven road

safety strategies.

Findings show that the type of vehicles/road users

most often involved in accidents on the highways

were motorized two-wheelers, or “M2Ws” (32%),

followed by cars (27%) and trucks (22%). The most

vulnerable road users, pedestrians and

motorcyclists, were involved in about 40% of all

events recorded, and M2Ws impacted or were

impacted by a truck or bus in about 18% of these.

Study findings shows that human and

infrastructure factors in combination (66%) had the

highest influence on the occurrence of accidents,

followed by human factors alone (23%).

Convert undivided road stretches on National

Highways to divided roads; Implement a speed

management program ; Clearly mark traffic

directions/instructions before and at intersections;

rovide crash barriers to make rigid objects on

roadside and median more crashfriendly and

forgiving when impacted.

No

NATIONAL TRENDS

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT ©TRIPP IIT DELHI

55

1

Road accident

problem in India

(Hingorani, D. and

Sarna, A., 1978)

The article gives the numbers

of and describes trends in road

accidents in india between

1960 and 1969.

It shows that although the total number is low the

annual rate of increase is very high, compared with

other countries. The fatality rate per 1000 vehicles

(8) was very high although the rate per 100,000

population (1) was low. Urban accident rates were

much higher than in other countries

The report stresses the need for countermeasures

such as road and traffic engineering and propaganda,

education and enforcement for road users.

2

A review of road

accidents in india -

their causative

factors and

preventive measures

(Hingorani, D. and

Sarna, A., 1978)

Trends in fatalities, total

accidents and motor vehicles in

India for the period 1960-1974

are discussed.

Over this period the number of motor vehicles

increased from 604902 to 2411545, the number of

road accidents increased from 55478 to 109657, and

fatalities increased at the rate of about 12.4 per cent

per annum. Traffic engineering, regulations,

enforcement, education and vehicle safety as

preventive measures are discussed.

Recommendations are presented on pedestrian

safety, cyclists, vehicle safety, driver control and the

education of children as suggested preventive

measures

No

3

Accidental death and

disability in India: A

stocktaking (Mohan,

D., 1984)

In this paper data from official

sources and spot studies of

small populations in India have

been used to extrapolate for

the whole country to get an

estimate of the magnitude of

the problem.

It is estimated that in 1978 India had a death rate of

57 per 10,000 vehicles. The Indian data show that

pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists are the

major road accident victims.

Compulsory helmet laws or mandatory headlight-on

laws for motorcycles are likely to be more effective

than seatbelt use laws for car passengers so they

should be implemented

No

4

Accident causative

factors (Chand, M.,

1995)

This paper analyses selected

important causes of Indian road

accidents.

It was found that the major causes of the accidents

in 1985 were: (1) driver errors (57%); (2) pedestrians

(5%); (3) vehicle defects (5%); (4) passengers (3%);

and (5) bad roads (2%). The author considers: (1) the

road factor; (2) the vehicle factor; (3) the month,

day, and time of day factor; (4) contributory factors;

and (5) the driver factor.

No

5

Road safety for

vulnerable road

users: some issues

and suggestions

(Kumar, P., 2000)

This paper covers issues and

suggestions relating to

engineering measures to make

Indian roads safer for

pedestrians and cyclists.

Education and enforcement are seen as playing a key

role in the enhancement of safety. Pedestrian safety

concerns footpath obstructions; dropped kerbs at

crossings; segregated footpaths in rural areas;

pedestrian crossing aids including refuges and

railings; and footbridges or subways. Facilities for

cyclists and rickshaws should include segregated

road channels and signaling. Many accidents could

No

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT © TRIPP IIT DELHI

56

be avoided by adopting these measures

6

Spectrum analysis of

road accidents - a

case study (Saija, K.

et al., 2000)

This paper presents a detailed

analysis of the spectrum of

road accidents in the Indian

state of Gujarat, which is a

rapidly developing part of India

with a higher than usual road

accident growth rate; it

contains extensive tables.

The Gujarat State traffic branch has collected road

accident information since 1975 and in A-4 form

since 1986; the data were collected and analysed in

five broad classifications, the time, district, vehicle,

road user, and road and environment spectra. The

spectra in the latter category include road

classification, road surface and width, type of

crossing and traffic control, location pattern,

collisions, traffic movement, and climate. The

Gujarat State traffic branch has collected road

accident information since 1975 and in A-4 form

since 1986; the data were collected and analysed in

five broad classifications, the time, district, vehicle,

road user, and road and environment spectra. The

spectra in the latter category include road

classification, road surface and width, type of

crossing and traffic control, location pattern,

collisions, traffic movement, and climate.

Road safety measures range from short-term low-

cost to long-term high-cost solutions, and include

phased programmes conducted according to

available resources.

yes

7

Traffic safety and

health in indian

cities (Mohan, D.,

2002)

This paper discusses some of

the issues concerning public

transport, safety and the

environment.

Around 15% of the total road traffic fatalities in India

occur in 23 metros.

In the metros, MTW comprise approximately 70% of

all vehicles and constitute 20- 30% of fatalities.

Heavy vehicles like trucks and buses are associated

with 50-70% of fatal road crashes both in urban and

rural areas.

The non-motorised transport road users consisting

of pedestrians, cyclists and other slow moving

vehicles are the most vulnerable group and account

for 60-80% of the ) fatalities.

Between 8:00 pm at night and 4:00 am in the

morning, crash rates are high compared to the

density of traffic. This may be due to prevalence of

higher vehicle speeds, low visibility, low conspicuity

of vehicles and alcohol.

Safety would be enhanced mainly by separating local

and through traffic on different roads, or by

separating slow and fast traffic on the same road,

and by providing convenient and safe road crossing

facilities at frequent intervals to vulnerable road

users and by making sure that the design guidelines

regarding issues like super elevation, etc. Are

observed strictly.

Findings suggest that wider shoulders reduce

conflicts between slow moving traffic and motor

vehicles but do not eliminate them. For these type of

crashes to be reduced the following

countermeasures need to be experimented with: (a)

Physical segregation of slow and fast traffic (b)

Provision of 2.5m paved shoulders with delineation

devices like cats eyes, studs, rumble strips (300 mm

No

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57

in width) between the main carriageway and the

shoulder (c) Provision of frequent and convenient

under-passes (at the same level as surrounding land

with highway raised to provide clearance) for

tractors, pedestrians, bicycles and NMT (d) Traffic

calming in semi-urban and areas and villages.

Collisions with fixed objects are low only on 4-lane

divided highways. Provision of adequate run-off area

without impediments is very important on highways

and better road markings to indicate the alignment

of the road would help also. We need to develop

standards for provision of convenient tunnels and

other crossing facilities in terms of designs and

frequencies. In addition, there would also be a need

for provision of “service roads” along the highways

for short distance trips for local traffic

8

The Road Ahead:

Traffic Injuries and

Fatalities in India

(Mohan, D., 2004)

Overview of Traffic injuries and

fatalities in India

Data show that the car population as a proportion of

total motor vehicles is much less in India than in the

hmcs (13% vs 56-80%) and that the proportion of

motorised two-wheelers (MTW) much higher (70%

vs 5-18%). Pedestrians, bicyclists and MTW riders

constitute a larger proportion of road crash victims

in India than in hmcs.

Measure are discussed for Pedestrian and bicyclist

safety, Motorcyclist safety, Motor vehicle occupants,

Road measures – initiation of good practices; Pre-

hospital care, treatment and rehabilitation (Short

term)

And in long term Traffic calming and speed control;

Segregated lanes for vulnerable road users and

buses in urban areas; Safer design of 4/6 lane

highways; Vehicle safety; Drinking under the

influence of alcohol and other drugs; Road user

based strategies; Prehospital care, treatment and

rehabilitation.

No

9

Road accident

models for large

metropolitan cities

of India (Valli, P. P.,

2005)

The aim of the present paper is

to develop models by analyzing

the road accident data at an all

India level as well as for major

metropolitan cities. The data

for the 25 year period from

1977 to 2001 were analyzed to

build models to understand the

nature and extent of the causes

of accidents using the concept

of Smeed's formula and

Andressen's equations.

As compared to an all india level, the total road

accidents in the seven metropolitan cities namely

ahemedabad, bangalore, mumbai, kolkata, delhi,

hyderabad and chennai were about 21.5% of the

total accidents during 1977, which marginally came

down by 5% to 16.9% in 2001. The fatalities and

injuries during this period exhibit a declining trend

significantly from 10.52% to 6% and from 23.28% to

8.96% respectively.

Yes

10 Exploring the

relationship

between

development and

road traffic injuries:

a case study from

India. (Garg, N. and

Aim to study the trends in

injury and death rates in a

developing country, India,

define sub-national variations,

and analyse these trends in

relation to economic and

population growth. Public

There has been a steady decline in vehicle-based

death and injury rates in India, but a growing trend

in the population based rates of injuries and deaths.

This seemingly divergent trend can be explained

since vehicle-based rates are decreasing due to a

disproportionate influx of vehicles on Indian roads,

while population-based rates are increasing because

Yes

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT © TRIPP IIT DELHI

58

Hyder, A. A., 2006)

sector data from India were

used to develop a standardized

database on traffic injuries and

indicator of economic

development.

of an absolute increase in the number of crashes

relative to the rate of population growth.

Developing nations such as India do not need to wait

for rising fatality rates before adopting road safety

measures. The more economically developed states

should consider immediate investment in road safety

measures to halt the rising mortality from road

crashes. Measures such as traffic law formulation,

implementation, and traffic segregation, as

suggested by WHO,2 should be undertaken. States in

earlier stages of development need to recognize the

potential loss of health that will occur, and should

phase in interventions to prevent traffic injuries. At

the same time, studies to understand the state-

specific determinants to guide effective measures

should be conducted.

11 Road Safety in India:

Challenges and

Opportunities

(Mohan, D. et al.,

2009)

The present report was

designed to analyze the traffic

safety situation in India, and to

identify countermeasures for

areas in which the total harm

caused by crashes can be

substantially and readily

reduced.

It is pointed out in this analysis that fatality rates

have increased both on highways and in urban areas

during the past few years. Theoretical models

suggest that the number of fatalities in India is not

likely to start to decline for many years to come

unless new policies are implemented. Based on the

present analysis, the following six areas are

identified as having potential for substantially

reducing fatalities in India: (1) pedestrians and other

non-motorists in urban areas, (2) pedestrians, other

non-motorists, and slow vehicles on highways, (3)

motorcycles and small cars in urban areas, (4) over-

involvement of trucks and buses, (5) nighttime

driving, and (6) wrong-way drivers on divided

highways.

Separation of motorized and nonmotorized traffic on

arterial roads; Special facilities for slow and local

traffic all along highways( Pedestrian detection

technology Forward collision warning systems);

Highway designs incorporating local needs

Enforcement are proposed

No

12 Road accidents in

India (Mohan, D.,

2009)

This paper discusses the

accident rate and fatalities and

the causes in India.

The total number of fatalities from 1997 to 2007

increased at an average rate of about 4% per year in

the period 1997-2003 and the rate has increased to

8% per year since then. The number of fatalities per

million population remained around 79-83 in the

period 1997-2003 and has since increased to 101.

Data show that car occupants were a small

proportion of the total fatalities, 3% in delhi and 15%

on rural highways. Vulnerable road users

(pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorized two-wheeler

riders) accounted for 84% of deaths in delhi and 67%

on highways.

The study reported that trucks were the striking

party in 65% of fatal crashes. Other studies done on

national and state highways in 1990’s report that

No

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59

majority of the crashes involved buses, 25% of the

victims were pedestrians, rear-end crashes

comprised 40% of total crashes and that crashes

were increasing at a rate of 3.9% per year .

Road safety policies in India must focus on the

following issues to reduce the incidence of road

traffic injuries: pedestrians and other non-motorist

in urban areas; pedestrians, other non-motorists,

and slow vehicles on highways; motorcycles and

small cars in urban areas; over-involvement of trucks

and buses; night-time driving; and wrong-way

drivers on divided highways. There is an urgent need

to revamp police data collecting procedures so that

necessary information is available for scientific

analysis. India specific countermeasures will be

possible through continuous monitoring and

research, which will require the establishment of

road safety research centers in academic institutions

and a National Road Safety Board that could help

move toward a safer future as outlined above.

13 Evidence-based road

safety practice in

India: assessment of

the adequacy of

publicly available

data in meeting

requirements for

comprehensive road

safety data systems.

(Barffour, M. et al.,

2012)

To assess the availability and

coverage of publicly available

road safety data at the national

and state levels in India.

2 publicly accessible data sources in India Were

reviewed the for the availability of data related to

traffic injuries and deaths: (1) the National Crime

Records Bureau (NCRB) and (2) the Ministry of Road

Transport and Highways (MORTH). Using the World

Health Organization (WHO) manual for the

comprehensive assessment of road safety data, we

developed a checklist of indicators required for

comprehensive road safety assessment. These

indicators were then used to assess the availability

of road safety data in India using the NCRB and

MORTH data. We assessed the availability of data on

outcomes and exposures indicators (i.e., number of

crashes, injuries, deaths, timing of deaths, gender

and age distribution of injuries and deaths), safety

performance indicators (i.e., with reference to select

risk factors of speeding, alcohol, and helmet use),

and cost indicators (i.e., medical costs, material

costs, intervention costs, productivity costs, time

costs, and losses to quality of life).

There is an urgent need to improve the publicly

available road safety data in India. This will enhance

monitoring of the burden of traffic injuries and

deaths, enable sound interpretation of national road

safety data, and allow the formulation effective road

safety policies.

No

14 Road traffic crashes

and risk groups in

India: Analysis,

interpretations, and

prevention

strategies

(Ponnaluri, R. V.,

2012)

The objectives of this work

were to (a) present the national

RTC framework and a case

study of Andhra Pradesh (AP);

(b) analyze and identify risk

types; (c) discuss trends and

data deficiencies; and (d)

recommend prevention

strategies.

During the period 1970–2009, the nation's road

length increased at a compounded annual growth

rate (cagr) of 3.2%, whereas the number of

registered vehicles, rtcs, and fatalities grew at 12%,

3.8%, and 5.7% cagr respectively. Exposure risk

dropped from 103 to 11 fatalities per 10 000 vehicles

but increased from 2.7 to 10.8 fatalities per 100 000

people. In 2009, 22% of fatal crashes in andhra

pradesh were due to heavy vehicles, while motorized

two-wheeler fatalities more than tripled during the

No

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60

Public Transportation

S.N. Title/year/author/j Objective

Recommendations

Statis

2001–2009 period. 42% of rtcs occurred at

‘uncontrolled’ intersections, while the crash risk at

police-regulated locations was 40% less than at

traffic signals.

Recommended prevention strategies include:

developing a road accident recording system and an

access management policy; integrating safety into

corridor design and road construction; undertaking

capacity-building efforts; and expanding emergency

response services.

15 Determinants of

road traffic crash

fatalities across

Indian States.

(Grimm, M. and

Treibich, C., 2013)

This article explores the

determinants of road traffic

crash fatalities in India. In

addition to income, the analysis

considers the

sociodemographic population

structure, motorization levels,

road and health infrastructure

and road rule enforcement as

potential factors. An original

panel data set covering 25

Indian states is analyzed using

multivariate regression analysis

The rising motorization, urbanization and

accompanying increase in the share of vulnerable

road users, that is, pedestrians and two-wheelers,

are the major drivers of road traffic crash fatalities in

India. Among vulnerable road users, women form a

particularly high-risk group. Higher expenditure per

police officer is associated with a lower fatality rate.

Results suggest that India should focus, in particular,

on road infrastructure investments that allow the

separation of vulnerable from other road users on

improved road rule enforcement and should pay

special attention to vulnerable female road users.

yes

Road traffic injury

mortality and its

mechanisms in India:

nationally

representative

mortality survey of

1.1 million homes

(Hsiao, M. et al.,

2013)

To quantify and describe the

mechanism of road traffic

injury (RTI) deaths in India

A nationally representative mortality survey was

conducted where at least two physicians coded each

non-medical field staff's verbal autopsy reports. RTI

mechanism data were extracted from the narrative

section of these reports.

Pedestrians (68 000), motorcyclists (36 000) and

other vulnerable road users (20 000) constituted

68% of rti deaths (124 000) nationally. Among the

study sample, the majority of all rti deaths occurred

at the scene of collision (1005/1733, 58%), within

minutes of collision (883/1596, 55%), and/or

involved a head injury (691/1124, 62%). Compared

to non-pedestrian rti deaths, about 55 000 (81%) of

pedestrian deaths were associated with less

education and living in poorer neighbourhoods.

No

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT ©TRIPP IIT DELHI

61

ournal

( conf/report)

tical

analy

sis

1

Factors affecting

bus-related

accidents - case

study of five

corporations in

tamilnadu (Victor,

D. and Vasudevan,

J., 1989)

This paper attempts to

analyse 1987 accident data,

relating to five bus transport

corporations in Tamil Nadu,

India, in order to reach

reasonable inferences and

practical recommendations.

Conclusions from the analysis of 1286 bus-related

accidents include: (1) 37% of buses and 16% of drivers

were involved in accidents, and this is a serious

situation requiring detailed examination of possible

counter- measures; (2) driver faults were considered

to be the primary cause of nearly 37% of the accidents,

so that additional training and refresher courses for

drivers are indicated; (3) drivers tend to become

involved in fewer accidents as their age and

experience increases; (4) about 54% of the accidents

were in built-up areas and bus stands; (5) the

proportions of accidents on straight road stretches,

curves and intersections were 81%, 11% and 5%,

respectively; (6) over 90% of the accidents were

attributed to bad road user behaviour, Remedies

suggested are road safety education and effective

driver training.

no

2

An analytical study

of bus-related

accidents in India

(Chand, M., 1999)

This paper examines the

frequencies and trends of

bus-related accidents with

special reference to public

road transport undertakings

(PRTUs) in India. It also

attempts to obtain statistical

relationships between

selected accident-related

factors by using PRTU data.

(Nothing else could be

found. )

Buses are involved in about 10% to 35% of road

accidents in different States of India.

yes

3

Analysis of Fatal

Crashes of Chennai

City’s Metropolitan

Transport

Corporation (MTC)

Buses (Jeya

Padmanaban, R. R.,

Swastik Narayan,

Bharat Ramesh,

2010)

Analysis of Fatal Crashes of

Chennai City’s Metropolitan

Transport Corporation

Using data for 283 fatal crashes, coded from detailed

accident reports (dars) maintained by mtc.

researchers determined that motorized two-wheelers

(m2ws), pedestrians and bus passengers falling off

footboards together constitute 89% of fatal road

users.

It was found that fatalities could be significantly

reduced by preventing rear tire run over in buses

(30%) using engineering interventions in bus design,

using bus doors to prevent passengers from falling off

the footboard (22%), helmet use (22%) by m2w riders,

pedestrian friendly infrastructure at crossings (64%)

and bus stops (30%), and by educating road users on

precautionary driving measures.

With 30% of pedestrian accidents having occurred at

or near bus stops, these areas would be a good place

to start an infrastructure intervention. Functional

designs for bus stops and pedestrian crossings need to

be looked into. In case of MTC bus crashes with M2Ws,

front-rear collisions and sideswipes are common on

divided roads indicating that infrastructure design, at

least for new roads, should incorporate solutions

which can separate buses and heavy vehicles from

light vehicles.

no

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62

4

Traffic Safety and

City Public

Transport System:

Case Study of

Bengaluru, India

(Kharola, P. S. et al.,

2010)

This paper presents an

analysis of the fatal crashes

that involved public transport

buses in Bengaluru, India.

Buses are involved in 12-20 percent of fatal crashes in

indian cities. Bus users face risks of road traffic injuries

on access trips and buses also are associated with road

traffic crashes with other road users. In absolute

numbers, motorized two-wheeler riders constitute the

largest share of fatalities (40%) and cyclists account for

about 10 percent for being its accident victims.

Adequate Right-of-Way for All Modes of Transport;

Installing Automatic Doors; Changing the Design of the

Bus Body; Better Personnel Policies; Selective but

Effective Enforcement of Regulations; Incentives for

Drivers; Structural Changes for an Integrated

Approach; are proposed.

The paper establishes that change in bus design with

low floors, automatically-closing doors, safer bus

fronts, and segregated infrastructure for bicycles and

pedestrians would go a long way in reducing the

number of fatal crashes on city roads involving public

buses.

No

URBAN SAFETY

S.N. Title/year/author/j

ournal

(conf/report)

Objective

Recommendations

Statis

tical

analy

sis

1

Two-wheeler

injuries in delhi,

india: a study of

crash victims

hospitalized in a

neuro-surgery ward

(Mishra, B. et al.,

1984)

The present study was

undertaken to determine the

head injury patterns of two-

wheeler riders admitted to a

hospital in Delhi. A total of 87

crash victims were studied

over a period of one year.

The results indicate that collision patterns, age

distribution, average injury severity and driving

experience of patients admitted were different from

those reported in studies conducted in industrialized

countries.

The motorized two-wheeler population has increased

in delhi by more than 300% in the last decade (1970-

80). Bicyclists and motorcyclists accounted for 244

traffic accident deaths in delhi in 1980. A majority

(83%) of the injured patients were mtw riders and the

rest bicycle riders . A vast majority of the crashes were

reported to have occurred on straight roads and only

16 were recorded as collisions with cars, trucks and

buses.

No

2

An analysis of road

traffic fatalities in

Delhi, India

(Mohan, D. and

Bawa, P., 1985)

This study is an attempt to

understand fatal crash

patterns in Delhi in 1980

using police data. The results

indicate that fatality patterns

in Delhi are very different

from those in highly

industrialized countries.

Pedestrians, two-wheeler riders and bus commuters

comprise 80% of fatalities and motor-vehicle

occupants a small minority.

Buses and trucks accounted for 65% of the crashes,

and cars and jeeps 7%. The rest were killed by impacts

with MTWs, tractors, three-wheeler scooter rickshas,

bullock carts, and tongas. Buses alone accounted for

29% of the fatalities. The high representation of buses

and trucks is partly due to the fact that they have high

exposure on the road.

Only 18% of the pedestrian fatalities occurred at road

junctions and 82% on the straight road. A large

proportion (5 1%) of the fatalities at junctions occurred

at T-junctions and only 28% at four-arm junctions and

a total of 79% at uncontrolled junctions. On the

No

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63

straight road 21% of the fatalities took place at

pedestrian crossings. This means that 26% of all

pedestrian fatalities on the straight road occurred at

marked pedestrian crossings.

Small vehicles like motorcycles and bicycles and other

slow-moving small vehicles should be painted only in

combinations of conspicuous colours like white,

orange and yellow, and greater use of reflective strips

should be encouraged. This would make smaller

vehicles more noticeable, especially at night.

Speed limiters must be installed on public buses and

trucks which operate within the city only.

A lower minimum age limit, of 25 years, should be

established for bus and truck drivers.

Helmet use should be made compulsory for all MTW

riders.

Pedestrians and two-wheeler riders should be made

aware of the advantages of wearing light-coloured

clothing so that they are more conspicuous on the

road.

Road designs should discourage high speeds in the city.

Pedestrian crossings on the straight roads should not

be provided unless there are built-in methods of

slowing down vehicular traffic on either side

BUS designs should be evolved which allow large

numbers to board the bus very quickly and then move

through the bus while the latter is in motion. Low-

powered small vehicles like three-wheeler scooter-

rickshas may be encouraged for use as taxis, and safer

designs evolved which are more comfortable for the

driver and passengers;

MTWs with engine capacities greater than 150 cc

should be discouraged, as higher-powered MTWs

riders tend to sustain more serious injuries . Design

features on roads which keep vehicle velocities low

consistently over long distances should be evolved.

These could include combinations of road markings,

ripples, serrations, and appropriate intersection

designs.

3

Road safety in and

around vadodara

city (Raichur, M. et

al., 1993)

This paper presents accident

statistics for Vadodara City,

India, and the surrounding

rural area, and proposes

several safety improvements

for them. Accident statistics

tables are given for each of

the years 1981 to 1990

. The most important causes of road accidents are:

motor vehicle driver (54%), cyclist (6%), other vehicle

driver (10%), and pedestrian (6%).

Urban road safety measures proposed are: (1)

increasing the safety of accident black spots, of which

six are named; (2) a variety of engineering measures,

including junction improvement; (3) several

enforcement measures; (4) proper use of media to

educate the public, and proper traffic education for

children

Yes

4

Injury pattern

among road traffic

accident cases : a

study from south

To know the prevalence of

injuries present among the

road. Traffic accident cases.

Study was done in

Pedestrians and drivers were 22% and 35% of rta

victims respectively. The occupants of vehicles

constituted the largest (43%) group of victims. Thirty-

five pedestrians (21.9%) injured were involved in an rta

No

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT © TRIPP IIT DELHI

64

India (Jha, N. et al.,

2003)

Pondicherry.

with a truck. Buses caused injuries to 20 pedestrians

(12.5% j. Motorised two wheelers and four wheelers

were involved in rtas in which 39(24.4%) and

34(21.3%) pedestrians were injured respectively. A

total of 254 drivers were involved in rtas. Among the

drivers of different types of vehicles, there were 38.6%

bicyclists and 16.9% bullock cart drivers. Motorized

two wheeler drivers were victims in 31.1% cases while

bus and four wheeler drivers were victims in 5.1% and

3.5% cases respectively. Among motorized two

wheelers 14(5.5%) were scooter drivers. Occupants of

trucks (12.6%). Among the motorized two wheelers

(11.3%), the pillion riders of scooters were least

involved (2%), other occupants were from four

wheelers of 312 occupants, bus occupants were the

highest numbers (48%) of victims involved in rtas

followed by like jeep, car.

Among the motorized two wheelers, moped drivers

were more commonly involved in rtas. This could be

due to the higher speed, which can be achieved over

short distances and less stability of the vehicle. One of

the most common mode of transportation used by

people is the bus and this is reflected by the fact that

bus occupants constituted the highest number (48%)

of rta victims.

Prompt and adequate ambulance service should be

provided to the victims with the help of government

and other voluntary agencies. Computerization and

use of International Classification of Diseases code in

the hospitals would help in preparation of a good

database for future studies and other uses.

5

Deaths due to road

traffic crashed in

Hyderabad city in

India: need for

strengthening

surveillance

(Dandona, R. and

Mishra, A., 2003)

Objective was to assess the

utility of the available data on

deaths due to road traffic

crashes for road crash

surveillance for a major

metropolitan city of southern

India. analysed the

Department of Police

database on deaths due to

road traffic crashes for 2002

in Hyderabad, southern India

and collected data from a

leading newspaper for the

same information using a

standardized format.

Pedestrians and riders of two-wheelers were the most

vulnerable. Collision with a vehicle caused 86.4% of all

crashes and 60% of the victims died before reaching a

hospital.

The available data have limitations and there is a need

for strengthening the road traffic crash surveillance

system to have reliable, accurate and adequate data

on road traffic crashes and the resulting fatalities and

injuries. These could then form the basis for planning

effective intervention strategies to improve road

safety.

no

6

Road Accident

Analysis: A Case

Study of Patna City

(Singh, S. K. and

Misra, A., 2001)

Aims to analyze the road

accidents in patna from 1996-

2000.

In patna fatalities related to pedestrian, two wheeler

and cyclist accounted for more than 98 % of cases

which is very high.most of the accidents were due to

buses and trucks (22 and 20% resp)

Segregation of traffic is one of the solution given

no

7

A comprehensive

study of motorcycle

fatalities in South

Ninety four cases of

motorcycle fatalities received

from South Delhi were

Motorcycle fatalities cases represented 5.38% of all

autopsy cases during the study period. In a majority of

cases offending vehicles were, the heavy weight motor

no

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65

Delhi (Behera, C. et

al., 2009)

,

studied during April 2007 to

March 2008 at All India

Institute of Medical Sciences,

Delhi. Data was analyzed with

regard to the age and sex of

the victim, pattern of injury,

use of helmet and presence

of alcohol in victim, cause of

death, time of accident,

mode of transportation of

the victims to hospital, and

offending vehicles.

vehicle (34.04%) followed by the medium weight

motor vehicle (19.14%).most of the deceased on

motorcycle were drivers (78.72%), out of which only

54.05% wore a helmet at the time of accident

8

Two wheeler

accidents on Indian

roads--a study from

Mangalore, India

(Jain, A. et al., 2009)

This study was undertaken to

find the trend of two wheeler

accidents over the five years

(2000–2004) with respect to

age and sex of the victim,

type of injury sustained, type

of vehicle involved and time

distribution of accidents.

The rider was affected in maximum number of

accidents (51.3%), the pillion and pedestrian were also

affected, but to a lesser extent .the type of two

wheeler mainly involved in accidents was the geared

vehicle; the number of such vehicles being 865 (81%)

compared to 211 (19%) non-geared vehicles.

In the light of the findings of this study, it is

recommended that education regarding road safety

should be imparted especially to the young age group.

They should be made aware of the traffic rules and

urged to strictly follow traffic rules. Construction of

properly planned roads and over-bridges to cope up

with the increasing burden of vehicles with emphasis

on lane driving will help the cause. Speed limit should

be strictly enforced in accident-prone areas. Efforts

should be made to reduce congestion on road

particularly during rush hours and especially in the

zones prone for accidents. Periodic surveillance and

repair of roads especially after rainy season is

suggested in this region. Use of helmets should be

made mandatory not only for the rider but also for the

pillion. For pedestrians, there should be complete

segregation by providing sidewalks on both sides of

the road. Measures like ‘zebra crossing’ and

construction of over-pass or sub-way if feasible can go

a long way in reducing morbidity and mortality among

pedestrians.

no

9

Analysis of fatal

road traffic

accidents in a

coastal township of

South India/ 2012

(Kanchan, T. et al.,

2012)

With the aim of exploring

various epidemiological

characteristics of RTAs, this

retrospective analysis of

medico-legal autopsies was

conducted between January

2005 and December 2009 in

the Department of Forensic

Medicine, Kasturba Medical

College, Manipal in

Karnataka, South India. The

information was collected

from post-mortem registers

and inquest documents

received from the

investigating police officers.

Occupants of motorized two wheelers (43%) and

pedestrians (33%) were the most common victims of

RTAs followed by occupants of light motor vehicles

(LMVs). The most common offending agents in road

traffic accidents were heavy motor vehicles (35.2%)

followed by light motor vehicles (31.7%).

no

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10

A Population-Based

Study on Road

Traffic Injuries in

Pune City, India

(Mirkazemi, R. and

Kar, A., 2014)

This study was conducted

with the aim of identifying

the burden, pattern, and risk

factors of RTIs in the

population of Pune City. A

population-based cross-

sectional study was

conducted among 9014

individuals in a randomly

selected and representative

sample of the population

from 14 administrative wards

of the city from March 2008

to April 2009.

Univariate analysis showed a significant association

between rtis and age, gender, occupation, mode of

transport, driving a vehicle, and alcohol abuse.

Multivariate analysis showed that only age, driving a

vehicle, and alcohol abuse were the factors associated

with rtis.

Injury occurrence was significantly more among the

age group 15-30, males, and students and workers.

yes

11

Evaluating Safety of

Urban Arterial

Roads of Medium

Sized Indian City

(Prajapati, P. and

Tiwari, G., 2013)

This paper estimates the

safety performance of urban

arterial mid-block of medium

sized Indian city based on

fatal crashes as a function of

traffic level and road network

features. The fatal crashes on

arterial mid-blocks are

analyzed separately from

junction crashes. The

accident prediction models

developed are based on 126

fatal crashes occurred in 6

years (2005-2010) in

Vadodara, India on 263 mid-

block arterial road segments.

It was found that number of fatal crashes increases as

the traffic level and length of road segment increases

and decreases as the number of junction per kilometer

increases on the road segment. These findings have

important bearing on the design of urban arterial

roads. In the absence of facilities for pedestrians and

bicyclists, arterial roads with wider carriageway and

higher number of lanes increase the risk of fatal crash

for pedestrians and bicyclists. Presence of medians

may result in higher speeds of motorized vehicles and

in the absence of facilities for pedestrians and

bicyclists the crash risk increases.

The impact of other geometric design parameters

should be evaluated to improve the road safety.

yes

12

Epidemiology of

road traffic accident

deaths in children in

Chandigarh zone of

North West India

(Singh, D. et al.,

2015)

Present study was carried out

to provide a baseline data to

policy makers to plan safer

transportation routes and in

setting up of health care

centers in areas that report a

higher number of accidents.

The present study is an

analysis of postmortem

records of 709 RTA-related

deaths in children

(⩽18 years) in Chandigarh

zone, undertaken at Post

Graduate Institute of Medical

Education and Research

(PGIMER), Chandigarh

between 1974 and 2013. The

autopsies on these cases

were conducted by the

department of Forensic

Maximum fatalities were reported among the

pedestrians (47.8%) followed by two wheeler

occupants (33.1%). The proportion of pedestrians and

heavy motor vehicle (hmv) fatalities decreased from

64% to 46% and 14% to 5% correspondingly in the

years 1974–78 and 2009–13. However, the proportion

of two wheeler and light motor vehicle (lmv) fatalities

increased from 18% to 39% and 0% to 7% respectively

in the years 1974–78 and 2009–13. The least

commonly affected was the three wheeler group

To bring the mortality rate down, children, especially

with rural background should be made aware about

the importance of strict compliance to traffic rules and

regulations. One of the best ways to do it is to include

road safety issues in school curriculum. Those children

who ride bicycles should be made to wear helmets as

it is expected to reduce the severity of injury to the

head. Drivers should avoid talking on mobile phones

while on roads.

yes

ROAD SAFETY IN INDIA: STATUS REPORT ©TRIPP IIT DELHI

67

Medicine, PGIMER,

Chandigarh.

The present study has highlighted the urgent need to

frame road safety policies like separate lanes for

different vehicles as the traffic in India in general and

this region in particular consist of all kinds of

automobiles including two wheelers, three wheelers

and four wheelers thus increasing the chances of

accidents. Installation of red lights and marking of

zebra crossings on the roads near schools and

playgrounds would be a welcome decision. The

government should also ensure that the vehicles

follow speed limits.

13

Pattern of Road

Traffic Accidents in

Bhubaneswar,

Odisha (Kar, S. et

al., 2015)

Objectives was to (1) To

estimate the incidence and

distribution of RTA in the

year 2012. (2) To determine

the epidemiological

variations of accidents in the

city. (3) To suggest

recommendations to the

traffic police and

administration.

The epidemiological trends that emerged were that

84% occurred in urban areas and mainly on the

National Highways (46.7%); 18% of RTA occurred

during rainfall, though no significant association could

be made out and much is attributed to under reporting

of data; motor cars (37%) and trucks (19.1%) were

predominately involved. Majority of the victims were

in the productive age group, 18–24, years and mainly

constituted males (68%).

Reporting of the accidents should be made as per the

formats generated at the national level.

-A mapping of accidents area wise should be done by

police to identify vulnerable points and patrolling

reinforced in those areas.

-Strict reinforcement of laws for rash driving, as side

and head-on collisions have been identified as the

major causes of RTA.

-As the productive age group is being affected,

especially the teens, some counseling programs and

Awareness Drives should be initiated regarding this.

-There should be a yearly assessment in liaison with

the health facility so that other concerns can be

brought out and effective management of the injured

can be planned.

-Timings of accidents should be kept in mind while

deputing traffic personnel, and for the late timings

also, a back-up plan should be devised.

-Urban and rural plans should be made, as problems

are different in both.

no

14

Why do three-

wheelers carrying

schoolchildren

suffer very low fatal

crashes? (Pandey,

G. et al., 2015)

The objective of the study

was to investigate the

hypothesis that drivers

behave differently while

following or overtaking three-

wheelers carrying children.

This paper investigates the

possible causes of low

fatalities in three-wheelers

(autorickshaw) carrying

schoolchildren in India.

The data was collected in the

form of First Information

Report (FIR) from local police

stations from 2007 to 2012

and video-graphic surveys

It was found that heavy vehicles maintain more gaps

while following or overtaking three-wheelers carrying

children as compared to those not carrying children. It

was also found that this effect is more prominent at

speeds higher than 40 km/h. On the other hand lighter

vehicles keep the highest lateral and longitudinal gaps

to heavy vehicles and three-wheelers without children

respectively.

yes

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68

were done on four arterial

roads running through

Ludhiana, Punjab, India.

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69

6. Way forward

INTERNATIONAL KNOWLEDGE BASE FOR CONTROL OF ROAD TRAFFIC INJURIES

International road safety research has involved a large number of very well trained

professionals from a variety of disciplines over the past four decades. Some very innovative

work has resulted in a theoretical understanding of road traffic crashes as a part of a complex

interaction of sociological, psychological, physical and technological phenomena. The results

could be exchanged and solutions transferred from one high-income country to another

because the conditions in these countries were roughly similar. This understanding of injuries

and crashes has helped high-income countries design safer vehicles, roads and traffic

management systems. A similar effort at research, development and innovation is needed in

India and similar countries. A much larger group of committed professionals needs to be

involved in this work for new ideas to emerge.

International cooperation in the area of road safety should focus on exchange of scientific

principles, experiences of successes and failures, and in scientific training of a large number of

professionals in India. The scientific principles of road safety can be exchanged for the benefit

of everyone. However, the priorities in road safety policies cannot be global in nature because

of the differing patterns of traffic and crash patterns around the world. We analyse below the risk

factors and the availability of known road safety countermeasures in the context of concerns

specific to India.

Results of systematic reviews

Legislation and enforcement

Most attempts at enforcing road-traffic legislation periodically will not have any lasting

effects, either on road-user behaviour or on accidents. Imposing stricter penalties (in the form of

higher fines or longer prison sentences) will not affect road-user behaviour, and imposing

stricter penalties will reduce the level of enforcement (Bjornskau, T. and Elvik, R., 1992).

Increased normal, stationary speed enforcement is in most cases cost-effective. Automatic

speed enforcement seems to be even more efficient. However, there is no evidence to prove

that mobile traffic enforcement for speed control with patrol cars is cost-effective (Carlsson, G.,

1997).

The only effective way to get most motorists to use safety belts is with good laws requiring

their use and sustained enforcement. When laws are in place, education and/or advertising can

be used to inform the public about the laws and their enforcement (O'neill, B., 2001).

In general, the deterrent effect of a law is determined in part by the severity and swiftness of

the penalty for disobeying it, but a key factor is the perceived likelihood of being detected and

sanctioned. Laws against drinking and driving are effective when combined with active

enforcement and the support of the community (Elder, R. W. et al., 2004, Koornstra, M., 2007,

Sweedler, B. et al., 2004).

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Policing methods and enforcement techniques have to be optimized for India to be effective

at much lower expenditure levels. There are no systematic studies evaluating different

techniques followed around the world. Research needs to be done on the effectiveness of

professional driver education, driver licensing methods, and control of problem drivers in Indian

settings.

Education campaigns and driver education

Road-safety campaigns often aim to improve road-user behaviour by increasing knowledge

and by changing attitudes. There is no clearly proved relationship between knowledge and

attitudes on the one hand and behaviour on the other (O'neill, B., 2001, OECD, 1986). Most

highway safety educational programmes do not work. They do not reduce motor-vehicle crash

deaths and injuries (Robertson, L. S., 1980, Robertson, L. S., 1983, Robertson, L. S. et al.,

1974). Only a few programmes have ever been shown to work, and contrary to the view that

education cannot do any harm, some programs have been shown to make matters worse

(Robertson, L. S., 1980, Sandels, S., 1975)(Robertson 1980; Sandels S. 1975). Driver or

pedestrian education programmes by themselves usually are insufficient to reduce crash rates

(Elvik, R. and Vaa, T., 2004). They may increase knowledge, and even induce some behaviour

change, but this does not seem to result in a reduction in crash rates (Duperrex, O. et al., 2003,

Roberts, I. et al., 2003). There is, however, no reason to waste money on general campaigns.

Campaigns should be used to put important questions on the agenda, and campaigns aimed at

changing road-user behaviour should be focused on clearly defined behaviours and should by

preference fortify other measures such as new legislation and/or police enforcement.

The effects of campaigns using tangible incentives (rewards) to promote safety-belt usage

have been evaluated by means of a meta-analytical approach. The results (weighted mean

effect) show a mean short-term increase in use rates of 12.0 percentage points; the mean long-

term effect was 9.6 percentage points (Hagenzieker, M. P. et al., 1997). Research first from

Australia, later from many European countries, then from Canadian provinces, and finally from

some US states clearly shows that the only effective way to get most motorists to use safety

belts is with good laws requiring their use.

Studies show that driver education may be necessary for beginners to learn the elementary

skills for obtaining a license, but compulsory training in schools leads to early licensing. There is

no evidence that such schemes result in a reduction in road-crash rates. On the other hand they

may lead to increased road-crash rates (Mayhew, D. R. and Simpson, H. M., 1996, Vernick et

al., 1999, Williams, A. F. and O'neill, B., 1974). While there may be a need to train professional

drivers in the use of heavy vehicles, there is no evidence that formal driver education should be

compulsory in schools and colleges.

Helmet use reduces bicycle-related head and facial injuries for bicyclists of all ages

involved in all types of crashes, including those involving motor vehicles (Thompson, D. C. et

al., 2003). Similar results have been confirmed for motorcyclists (American College Of, S., 2001,

Bledsoe, G. H. et al., 2002, Brandt, M. M. et al., 2002, Liu, B. et al., 2003, Mcknight, A. J. and

Mcknight, A. S., 1995, Mohan, D. et al., 1984, National Highway Traffic Safety, A., 1996).

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71

Vehicle factors

Vehicles conforming to EU or USA crashworthiness standards provide significant safety

benefits to occupants, and the effectiveness of the following measures have been evaluated.

Use of seatbelts and airbag-equipped cars can reduce car-occupant fatalities by over 30%.

It is estimated that air-bag deployment reduced mortality by 63%, while lap–shoulder-belt use

reduced mortality by 72%, and combined air-bag and seatbelt use reduced mortality by more

than 80% (Crinion, J. D. et al., 1975, Kent, R. et al., 2005, Parkin, S. et al., 1993).

High-mounted rear brake lights reduce the incidence of rear-end crashes (Etsc, 1993).

A meta-analysis of 17 studies that have evaluated the effects on traffic safety of using

daytime running lights on cars shows that their use reduces the number of multi-vehcle daytime

crashes by about 10–15% for (Elvik, R., 1993). Similar results have been confirmed for the use

of daytime running lights by motorcyclists (Radin Umar, R., 2006, Radin Umar, R. S. et al.,

1996, Yuan, W., 2000).

Improvements in vehicle crashworthiness and restraint use have contributed to a major

reduction in occupant fatality rates and are estimated to be more than 40% in most reviews

(Elvik, R. and Vaa, T., 2004, Koornstra, M., 2007, Noland, R. B., 2003).

However, not enough work has been done to make vehicles safer in impacts with

vulnerable road users, or on vehicles specific to Indian condtions.

Environmental and infrastructure factors

The road environment and infrastructure must be adapted to the limitations of the road user

(Van Vliet, P. and Schermers, G., 2000).

Traffic-calming techniques, use of roundabouts, and provision of bicycle facilities in urban

areas provide significant safety benefits and limited-access highways with appropriate shoulder

and median designs provide significant safety benefits on long-distance through roads (Elvik,

R., 1995, Elvik, R., 2001, Hyden, C. and Varhelyi, A., 2000).

Though improvements in road design seem to have some beneficial effects on crash rates,

increases in speed and exposure can offset some of these benefits (Noland, R. B., 2003,

O'neill, B. and Kyrychenko, S., 2006). Road designs that control speeds seem to be the most

effective crash control measure (Aarts, L. and Van Schagen, I., 2006).

A great deal of additional work needs to be done on rural and urban road and infrastructure

design suitable for mixed traffic to make the environment safer for vulnerable road users. This

would require special guidelines and standards for design of, (a) roundabouts, (b) service lanes

along all intercity highways, and (c) traffic calming on urban roads and highways passing

through settlements.

Pre-hospital care

Recent Cochrane Reviews have concluded that (Bunn, F. et al., 2001, Kwan, I. et al.,

2004a, Kwan, I. et al., 2004b, Sethi, D. et al., 2004):

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There is no evidence from randomized controlled trials to support the use of early or large-

volume intravenous fluid administration in uncontrolled haemorrhage. There is uncertainty about

the effectiveness of fluid resuscitation in patients with bleeding.

The effect of pre-hospital spinal immobilization on mortality, neurological injury, spinal

stability, and adverse effects in trauma patients therefore remains uncertain. Because airway

obstruction is a major cause of preventable death in trauma patients, and spinal immobilization

– particularly of the cervical spine – can contribute to airway compromise, the possibility that

immobilization may increase mortality and morbidity cannot be excluded.

In the absence of evidence of the effectiveness of advanced life support training for

ambulance crews, a strong argument could be made that it should not be promoted outside the

context of a properly concealed and otherwise rigorously conducted randomized controlled trial.

A recent study by Lerner and Moscati shows that no scientific evidence is available for

supporting the concept of the ‘golden hour’ (Lerner, E. B. and Moscati, R. M., 2001). While it is

desirable that we possible time, it is equally important that ambulances do not endanger the life

of others while doing so, and do not waste scarce resources in promoting systems of dubious

benefit (Becker, L. R. et al., 2003).

Before we import expensive pre-hospital care systems from high income countries, it is

necessary that their effectiveness be established.

THE WAY FORWARD

Practice points

Some of the policy options are outlined below.

Pedestrian and bicyclist safety

1. Reserving adequate space for non-motorized modes on all roads where they are present.

2. Free left turns must be banned at all signalized junctions. This will give a safe time for

pedestrians and bicyclists to cross the road.

3. Speed control in urban areas: maximum speed limits of 50 km/h on arterial roads need to be

enforced by road design and police monitoring, and 30 km/h in residential areas and by

judicious use of speed-breakers, dead-end streets and mini roundabouts.

4. Increasing the conspicuousness of bicycles by fixing reflectors on all sides and wheels and

painting them yellow, white or orange.

Motorcyclist and motor vehicle safety

1. Notification of mandatory use of helmet and daytime headlights by two-wheeler riders.

2. All cars to conform to latest international crashworthiness regulations.

3. Pedestrian safety regulations for cars to be notified

4. Enforcement of seatbelt use laws countrywide.

5. Restricting front-seat travel in cars by children and the use of child seats has potential for

reducing injuries to child occupants.

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6. Introduction of active safety technologies like automatic braking, pedestrian detection,

electronic stability control, and alcohol locks.

Road measures

1. Traffic calming in urban areas and on rural highways passing through towns and villages.

2. Improvement of existing traffic circles by bringing them in accordance with modern

roundabout practices and substituting existing signalized junctions with roundabouts.

3. Provision of segregated bicycle lanes and disabled-friendly pedestrian paths.

4. Mandatory road safety audit for all road building and improvement projects.

5. Construction of service lanes along all 4-lane highways and expressways for use by low-

speed and non motorised traffic.

6. Removal of raised medians on intercity highways and replacement with steel guard rails or

wire rope barriers.

Enforcement

1. The most important enforcement issue in India is speed control. Without this it will be difficult

to lower crash rates as a majority of the victims are vulnerable road users.

2. The second most important measure to be taken seriously is driving under the influence of

alcohol. 30%–40% of fatal crashes in India may have alcohol involvement.

3. Enforcement of seatbelt and helmet use.

Pre-hospital care, treatment and rehabilitation

1. Modern knowledge regarding pre-hospital care should be made widely available with

training of specialists in trauma care in the hospital setting.

2. Pre-hospital care programmes should be rationalized on evidence-based policies so that

scarce resources are not wasted.

Research agenda

1. Development of street designs and traffic-calming measures that suit mixed traffic with a

high proportion of motorcycles and non-motorized modes.

2. Highway design with adequate and safe facilities for slow traffic.

3. Design of lighter helmets with ventilation.

4. Pedestrian impact standards for small cars, buses and trucks.

5. Evaluation of policing techniques to minimize cost and maximize effectiveness.

6. Effectiveness of pre-hospital care measures.

7. Traffic calming measures for mixed traffic streams including high proportion of motorised

two-wheelers.

Institutional arrangements

International experience suggests that unless a country establishes an independent national

road traffic safety agency it is almost impossible to promote safety in a comprehensive and

scientific manner. This was stated powerfully in a report Reducing Traffic Injury: A Global

Challenge almost 22 years ago (Trinca, G. W. et al., 1988):

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“Each country should create (where one does not exist) a separate traffic safety agency

with sufficient executive power and funding to enable meaningful choices between strategy and

program options. Such an agency would ideally report directly to the main legislative/political

forum or to the head of government.”

The World Health Organization, in its report World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention

(Peden et al. 2004) recommends:

•

Make road safety a political priority.

•

Appoint a lead agency for road safety, give it adequate resources, and make it publicly accountable.

•

Develop a multidisciplinary approach to road safety.

•

Set appropriate road safety targets and establish national road safety plans to achieve them.

•

Create budgets for road safety and increase investment in demonstrably effective road safety

activities.”

The following suggestions made by the National Transport Development Committee (National

Transport Development Policy Committee, 2014b) should be considered for implementation.

Establish National Board/Agency for Road Safety.

This Board must be:

(a) Independent of the respective operational agencies to avoid conflict of interest

(b) The CEO of the Board should be of a rank of Secretary to the Government of India and report

directly to the Minister of the concerned ministry

(c) The Board should be staffed by professionals who have career opportunities and working

conditions similar to professionals working in IITs/CSIR laboratories

(d) The Board should have an adequate funding mechanism based on the turnover of that sector

(e) The terms of reference can incorporate the recommendations similar to those included in the

reports submitted by the Committee on Roads Safety and Traffic Management (Committee, 2007).

The Committee also recommended that the Board be given power to not only set standards but

also monitor their adoption and implementation. For this purpose, the Board would empanel auditors to

do spot checks and audits of highways under design, construction or operation to ensure that safety

standards are adhered to. If standards are not adhered to, the Board would have powers to issue

suitable directions with regard to corrective measures. The Board would have similar powers to ensure

that mechanically propelled vehicles conform to safety standards set by the Board. In addition, the

Board would have powers to seek information and reports and access records and documents. Where

the standards set or directions issued by the Board have not been adhered to the Board should have the

power to levy penalties.

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The Committee recommended that a minimum of one per cent of the total proceeds of the cess on

diesel and petrol should be available to the Road Safety Fund of Centre and the States as road safety is a

matter of concern not only on national highways but also on the state roads, village roads and railway

level crossings . Also, at least 50 per cent of the amount retained by the Government of India by way of

the share of the national highways and the Railways should be allocated to accident- prone urban

conglomerations and States in addition to their entitlement. Assistance to the States from the National

Road Safety Fund should be released to support road safety activities provided that the States enter into

agreements with the Government of India in respect of these activities and faithfully implement the

agreements.

Manpower requirements

International experience suggests that the proposed National Road Safety and Traffic Management

Board at maturity would need at least 250-350 professionals to man the eleven departments envisioned

in the report of the Committee. Almost all of these professionals would have to be at the post-graduate

level in the different areas of expertise needed for road safety. This is essential for the following

reasons: (a) the agency would need to have in-house technical expertise to keep abreast of scientific and

technical advancements in road safety knowledge internationally. (b) Since the Board will have the

responsibility of establishing safety standards, it is essential that its staff have domain expertise for the

same. (c) The Board will be sponsoring research in various areas of road safety. For establishment of

research priorities and monitoring of projects the Board would need to have professionals whose

expertise is similar to those working in academic and research institutions.

The role of a national agency such as the one proposed above was highlighted in the World Report

on Road Traffic Injury Prevention (Peden, M. et al., 2004). Without the existence of such an agency,

accountable road safety leadership at country, state, provincial and city does not get established. In the

absence of such leadership it is almost imposable to evolve sustainable policies and establish

mechanisms for their implementation. The national agency will have to focus on the following objectives

in the immediate future (Bliss, T. and Breen, J., 2009):

1. Set project objectives

2. Determine scale of project investment

3. Identify project partnerships

4. Specify project components

5. Confirm project management arrangements

6. Specify project monitoring and evaluation procedures

7. Prepare detailed project design

8. Highlight project implementation priorities

Bliss and Breen (2009) have proposed a set of questions that can be asked to evaluate the

strengths and weaknesses of a national safety agency (Box 3). The project implementation and research

priorities will have to be developed on an urgent basis and measureable targets established for each

five-year plan period. An illustrative list is given in Box 4. The measures and principles outlined for the

national road safety agency can be modified appropriate for national agencies for other sectors.

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National Data Base and Statistical Analysis Systems

At present very little epidemiological information is available in India for deaths and injuries

associated with transport. For evolution of evidence based safety policies and strategies based on the

systems approach, it is necessary to set up reliable data collection and analysis procedures for traffic

accidents in consonance with international practices at different levels. This needs a special input for

establishing special agencies in all sectors of transport.

The national safety agency must include a special department for data collection and statistical

analysis. International experience suggests that such departments need to employ about 50-100

statistical and epidemiology experts who design surveys, data collection methods, perform statistical

analyses and publish reports. It is equally important that all such data be available in the public domain

so that independent researchers outside the official agency can also perform independent analyses and

studies.

The functions of these Departments could include:

• Collating relevant data from existing surveillance systems: Census Bureau, National Sample

Survey Organisation, National Crime Record Bureau, Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, etc.

• Establishing systems for scientific data collection by the police department

• National surveillance systems for all fatal accidents

• Sample surveys for specially identified problems

• Sample surveillance systems in identified hospitals

• Establishment of multidisciplinary accident investigation units in academic and research

institutions

• Coordinating with relevant ministries and departments at the central, state and city level for

collating data collected by the respective agencies

Establish safety departments within operating agencies

MoRTH should have an internal safety department (at different levels) for ensuring day to day

compliance with safety standards, studying effectiveness of existing policies and standards, conducting

safety audits, collecting relevant data, and liaison with the National Safety Agency, etc. These

departments must employ 30-60 professional with expertise in the relevant area of safety, with 30-40

per cent of the staff on deputation form the field.

Agencies operating under the Ministry (e.g. National Highway Authority of India) should also

establish their own departments of safety with domain specialists. The functions of these departments

would include field audits, before and after studies, data collection from the field, and liaison with the

relevant ministry and the national safety agency.

Fund establishment of multidisciplinary safety research centres at academic

institutions.

The national safety agencies in each of the transport ministries should establish multidisciplinary

safety research centres in independent academic and research institutions. These centres would ideally

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77

include three or more disciplines of research, and for each area of work should be at pursued in three or

more centres. This would promote competition among centres and likely to result in more innovation.

Safety research involves the following disciplines: relevant engineering sciences, statistics and

epidemiology, trauma and medical care, sociology, psychology, jurisprudence, and computer science.

For these centres to be productive, each centre should have a minimum of 8-10 professionals. It is also

possible that one academic institution has more than one of these safety research centres. It is

recommended that 15 such centres be established by 2020 and another 15 by 2025.

The funding for each of these centres should include:

•

Endowment for three or more professorial chairs

•

Endowment grant for at least two postgraduate scholarships per endowed chair

•

Establishment funds for critical laboratories

•

Funds for supporting visiting professionals

•

Support for surveys, software, travel

For these centres to function effectively the minimum grant per centre per year would be in the

range of Rs. 30-40 million annually including endowment funds. Each national safety agency should

establish procedures for issuing call for proposals and for evaluating the same under open completion. A

procedure should also be established for an academic peer evaluation of each centre every two years.

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