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| Traffic Collision |
Recently, a writ petition (Judgment) was
filed seeking the Court’s intervention, primarily, in the matter of enforcement
of the prevailing laws relating to Road Safety and also seeking directions for enactment
of appropriate legislative measures and for more affirmative administrative
action.
The petitioner also sought
directions from the Court for upliftment of the existing infrastructure and
facilities with regard to post-accident care and management to minimize loss of
life and physical injuries to victims of road accidents.
In order to underscore the
importance of Road Safety, the petitioner gave a lot of statistics relating to
road accidents. In the present post, I will mention some of the facts relating
to road safety that were pointed out in this case.
1. In 2010, nearly 500,000
Road Traffic Accidents took place resulting in approximately 130,000
deaths and serious injuries including amputation of limbs to over 500,000
persons.
2. On an average, 20 percent of
all people killed in road accidents in developing countries are under the
age of fifteen. This is twice as high as in the developed world.
3. There are as many as thirty
five accidents per thousand vehicles, and the drivers involved in road
crashes are in the age group 20-40 years. Two wheelers and cars contribute to
50 percent of the total accidents.
4. Road crashes cost
approximately one to three percent of a country’s GDP. Other than road engineering
issues, most of the accidents are caused by the drivers fault.
5. One serious road accident in
the country occurs every minute; and one person dies in a road traffic accident
every 4 minutes.
6. There is no standardized
toll free access number to call emergency medical help in India.
7. There is a lack of
awareness regarding Honourable Supreme Court of India’s directives
regarding the right to emergency care for Road Traffic Accident victims
and the legal protection available to good Samaritans who offer help to
a victim of a road accident.
8. There is no provision to
ensure adequate compensation to an RTA victim in case the accident causing
vehicle does not have a third party insurance.
9. Majority of the drivers do not
have a personal medi-claim policy to cater to their emergency medical
needs in case of an accident.
After reading this, I am pretty sure
that you would have understood the gravity of this matter. Road traffic accidents, therefore, have the potential of being one of the largest challenges to orderly human existence necessitating immediate and urgent intervention. In the next post, I
will mention various directives passed by the Court in this case.
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