Steps to be taken for Preventing Road Accidents
•Most important method to bring down accidents is strict enforcement of speed limits. 90 % of accidents can be avoided by strict enforcement of
speed limits.
•Heavy Penalty should be imposed on ALL those who cross speed limits. If
this is strictly implemented, nobody will dare to go at high speed.
•Existing speed limits should be brought down further.
•Heavy penalty should be imposed for those who cause accidents.
•Tamper proof speed controllers should be made mandatory for all heavy
vehicles. New heavy vehicles should have built in tamper proof speed
controllers.
•Two wheeler manufacturers should be asked to design two wheelers with a designed maximum possible speed of (say) 50/60 kmph. This limit may be
decided based on the conditions.
•New gadgets are to be developed for collision prevention and should be
fitted on all vehicle. Research organizations should be asked to develop such gadgets on a war footing. For example, gadgets can be developed to automatically slow down the vehicle, if safe distance commensurate with the speed of the vehicle in front is not maintained. Gadgets can be developed for warning the driver, if the driver sleeps.
•Diving tests for issue of Driving license is to be made more stringent and foolproof.
•Lower age limit for two wheeler and Heavy Vehicle license should be raised to 21.
•Helmet should be made compulsory by law, or impose a
lower speed limit for those who do not use helmet. Issue of Helmet should
be made mandatory with the sale of each two wheeler.
•Helmet should be made compulsory for back seat riders also.
•Ensure that all Helmet users are fixing the Chinstrap of Helmet. Otherwise it will not help during an accident.
•Ensure that only good quality Helmets that meet standard specifications
are available in the market.
•Existing traffic rules should be strictly enforced.
•Law should be modified such that the person who makes the accident has to bear (say) 0 to 10 % of the insurance claims, depending on severity of negligence. Also the compensations should be made very huge, making accidents unaffordable so that everyone will be very vigilant.
•All those who do not maintain the safe distance for the speed should be
punished
•Safety awareness should begin from childhood, as it is difficult to impart awareness to a grown up a human. If safety awareness is imparted at
childhood, safety will be a habit.
•Video and Computer games that simulate Motor Racing should be banned
by Government or discouraged by parents as it will develop racing habit in
children.
•All sorts of Motor sports, especially racing should be banned by government. Telecast of Motor Sports and Racing also should be banned.
•Racing, over speed / highly risky riding, driving by Heroes should not be
filmed in cinemas and TV serials. Children are likely to imitate the same.
Statutory warning will no help. Government should censor such scenes.
•Advertisements by automobile companies which include scenes of
dangerous and risky riding or driving should be banned. Youngsters are likely to imitate the same. Statutory warnings will not help. Such ads will result in irreparable character formation regarding riding and driving in kids and children. Such children may make accidents in future.
•Children below a certain age should not be permitted to do cycling in busy roads and in roads where heavy vehicles are plying.
•Refreshment parlors should be made available at every 50 / 100 k.m. on all highways and important roads. Truck, Heavy vehicle drivers should be
forced to refresh by having a face wash or by having a cup of tea or coffee.
•The practice of keeping the traffic signals in standby mode during nights and on holidays is to be reviewed and discontinued.
•Advertisement boards and other items that may obstruct visibility at
junctions, curvatures and other parts of the roads should be removed
immediately.
•Ensure that the money recovered as Road Tax is fully utilised for the
construction and maintenance of roads.
•Time Punching of Private buses practiced in some regions should be
discontinued as it is forcing the drivers to go at high speed, after traffic
blocks.
•Newspaper, Television and other media should be effectively used for Public Safety Awareness.
• Major accidents and accident prone areas should be analysed scientifically.
•Speed should be restricted at accident prone areas.
•More stringent traffic rules should be enacted.
•License of those who are involved in accidents should be suspended
immediately, at least until they prove that they are not guilty.
•License of those who make serious accidents should be cancelled
immediately
•All the roads should be maintained properly. Permanent contracts or
arrangements should be in place for maintaining all roads in good condition
24 hours a day, 365 days an year. If a gutter is repaired in time it can save a
life !!!
•Health of vehicles should be strictly enforced.
• Eyes of old aged driving license holders should be checked at regular
intervals.
• License of drunkard drivers and riders should be cancelled immediately. •Judicial Commissions should be setup to monitor steps taken to control road
accidents and to monitor the accident rates on a weekly basis.
• One way traffic should be implemented in all roads as far as possible. Roads should be widened wherever required. Curvatures should be minimised. Medians should be constructed in roads with two way traffic.
•Footpaths and medians should be made mandatory for all important roads and for all new roads.
•Zebra crossings should be provided for pedestrians for safe road crossings at appropriate places.
•Signals for road crossings should be provided at important and busy places where a large number of people have to cross the road everyday.
• Roads should be properly marked. Sign posts should be provided wherever required.
•Humps should be provided at all important places, accident prone areas.
Humps should be made mandatory for all sub roads where it enters a main
road.
•Construction, size and shape of the Humps should be scientific. All the
Contractors of the Public Works and other departments should be provided
with the details of scientific Hump construction.
•Humps should be clearly marked, to avoid accidents. Methods of permanent nature should be followed in Hump marking. For example white marble pieces / white color / fluorescent pigment can be used.
•Provision of small pilot humps few meters before humps can also be
considered to ensure that humps are not left unnoticed.
•Obstructions on road sides caused by unauthorised construction and road side sales should be eliminated completely.
• Visibility should be increased near curvatures. Sometimes, even cutting of grass to increase visibility can help save many lives.
•Road Safety Day / Road Safety Week should be observed in all Schools,
every year. Competitions on Road Safety Tips, Slogans, Essays, Paintings
etc. should be conducted for students of various classes.
•School Buses should be painted with Bright Yellow color.
•Let ‘Road Safety’ be a mandatory topic for School Projects for all classes,every year.
•A small pool of water or a hanging branch of tree on roadsides can cause
accidents as such obstructions will make the pedestrians and drivers to take sudden lateral movement and result in accidents. Hence any obstruction on road sides which can cause a lateral movement should be rectified immediately.
•Black color should not be permitted for Cycles. Default color for Cycles
should be changed to Yellow.
•Automobile and cycle manufacturers should be asked to stop producing
black and dark vehicles. Yellow or other bright colored vehicles should be
produced instead.
•Front and Back of Lorries and Trucks should be painted with bright Yellow color to increase visibility. This will help to prevent collisions while Lorries and Trucks are parked on roadside without parking lights switched on.
•Reflectors should be fixed on Front and Back of Trucks and Lorries.
•Accident statistics should be periodically reviewed to understand the effect of actions taken. Corrective steps should be taken based on these reviews.
•Attention distracting Hoardings, banners, posters, advertisements etc
should be banned near roads and highways.
• Default color of Helmets should be changed to Yellow to reduce accidents by increased visibility. Black and dark colors should not be permitted.
• All automobile manufacturers should be asked to strengthen safety standards of vehicles by improved design. It is to be noted here that in the series of collisions of vehicles , only few people are to be killed. This is because of the high safety standards.
More than 1,200,000 people are killed in
Road Accidents worldwide, every year.
