E-Paper
Road safety network appeals for launch of new mission
The road safety network is a national coalition of road safety organisations working for safe roads in India
The road safety network, a nationwide umbrella group, appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch the Surakshit Bharat Mission to minimise road accidents and deaths.
Ranjit Gadgil, programme director of Parisar organisation said, “The road safety network is a national coalition of road safety organisations working for safe roads in India. We wrote the letter to the prime minister and appealed to him to launch such a mission so that we can fix the target to bring down road crash fatalities and injuries by 50 per cent by 2025.”
Gadgil said, “Every year 1.5 lakh lives and over six lakh injuries happen due to road accidents in India. With the right approach to road safety, we can reduce the number of crashes, minimise the fatalities and injuries that are caused in a crash and ensure that we save lives.”
The organisation suggests following components for Surakshit Bharat Mission:
- Declare clear, achievable national and statewide targets to reduce road crash fatalities and injuries
- Create an independent and autonomous National Road Safety Board consisting of experts from the field which can provide recommendations without any political interference
- Ensure full adoption of and compliance with the Motor Vehicles Act and ensure political leadership and support for strict enforcement, both stringent penalties and effective on road policing
- Develop all new roads on best international safety standards
- Implement the Bharat New Car Assessment programme with world quality safety
- shift focus of performance indicators from speed to safety of all users
- Create world class emergency care response system as well as rehabilitation of victims of road crashes
