Need highways road safety police: Report
The report, a copy of which has been reviewed by HT, has come against the backdrop of the National Road Safety month being observed by the Centre between January 18 and February 17.
The Centre and states must form dedicated national and state-level highway road safety police, and enhance the institutional framework with statutory bodies in the form of road safety authorities with quasi-judicial powers and sizable funds, the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPRD) has recommended.
A National Road Safety Plan (NRSP) prepared by former director general of police and chairman of the Telangana road safety authority, T Krishna Prasad, circulated to all states and Union territories for implementation, has also recommended deploying an advanced life saving ambulance for every 100 kilometres of road length on the highways as well as use of drones and air ambulances to rescue accident victims and provide food and medical help.
The report, a copy of which has been reviewed by HT, has come against the backdrop of the National Road Safety month being observed by the Centre between January 18 and February 17.
“In India, enforcement is majorly restricted to city limits only. There exists no enforcing mechanism on national and state highways. Hence it is anticipated that the road crashes and deaths are happening more on highways. In fact, 55% of road crashes and 62% of road fatalities happen on just 5% of road length of National and State highways,” said the report, which suggested “effective enforcement activities” on national highways, state highways and other roads.
According to data from the ministry of road transport and highways, road accidents claimed nearly 150,000 lives in 2018. India is a signatory to the United Nations Brasilia Declaration on road safety, which called for reducing road fatalities by 50% by 2020.
The BPRD’s report suggests the formation of a National Highways Road Safety Police (NHRSP) for strict enforcement of rules against traffic violations on highways across India. Similarly, there should be a dedicated State Highways Road Safety Police (SHRSP) for state highways.
“The highway development in India has seen a much-awaited push since last two decades. The road length has increased considerably by construction of several multi-lane highways. However, over the same time, the safety performance of the roads has deteriorated in terms of increase in the number of road fatalities,” it added.
The report said that if implemented, the NRSP will result in an annual reduction of 12% to 15% in road accidents and fatalities and will increase traffic law compliance among road users, and encourage good driving practices. Subsequently, it will provide employment to around 32,000 people.
The report said that “a budgetary support arrangement coupled with a pan-India Road Safety Police” will effectively complement India‘s endeavour to reduce road accident deaths and also result in saving of the cumulative loss to gross domestic product (GDP) to the extent of about ₹5 lakh crore by the end of the fifth year.
On top of that, a notional 37,667 human lives would have been saved when the National Highway Road Safety Police is deployed, the report estimated.
Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari, while inaugurating the first ever National Road Safety Month last month, said that the government aims to halve road accidents and deaths before 2025.
Gadkari also said India had recorded a significant drop in road accidents and deaths in 2020 compared to 2019 partly due to the lockdown induced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“A total of 1.5 lakh people died, while more than 4.5 lakh people got injured in road accidents every year, resulting in social-economic losses from accident deaths equivalent to a shocking 3.14% of GDP every year,” Gadkari added. He said 70% of road fatalities were in the age group of 18 to 45 years.
