Approach:

Introduction: Mention the context of the recent report.

Body: Mention reasons, and describe government steps.

Conclusion: Suggest further measures to fulfil the right to life.

Recently a report from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways found that 83% of car occupants who died in accidents in 2021 weren’t wearing seatbelts. This highlights the lack of education among people for the prevention of accidents such as the Cyrus Mistry case in which not wearing seatbelts (which are mandatory as per law) led to curtain airbags not opening at rear seats.

Reasons for Road Accidents:

• Poor enforcement of regulations related to licensing of vehicles, traffic rules etc. Corruption in regional transport offices leads to licences by bribery thus poor driving skills. Most victims are two-wheeler passengers and pedestrians who lack adequate safety on roads as per a 2021 MORTH report.
• Careless human behaviour such as overspeeding, drunk driving etc.
• Faulty road engineering designs creating accident hotspots alongside a lack of a dedicated database leads to ignoring this issue. Lack of proper markings on dividers causing vehicles to crash during foggy nighttime.
• Second largest road network in India with high population and population density plus rising incomes and demand for vehicles leading to more probability of accidents on roads.

Reasons for high fatalities out of accidents:

• Lack of adequate safety provisions such as lack of rear airbags in all the passenger vehicles, which are limited to luxury cars only. Recently the government declared regulations to implement 6 airbag rules mandatory for all 8-seater passenger vehicles.
• Punishment of good samaritans post-accident by police such as burdensome paperwork, and doubts about samaritans themselves. This leads to people not helping accident victims with the wastage of the golden hour.
• Lack of proper emergency care such as timely ambulances, and medical care to victims in the golden hour.

Recent government steps in this regard-

• National road safety policy 2013 provides for aspects like a dedicated database, measures for awareness, encouraging safe road infrastructure including the application of intelligent transportation, enforcement of safety laws etc.
• Formation of National, State and district road safety councils.
• Multi-pronged 4E strategy ( Education, Engineering, Enforcement and Emergency care ) by MORTH.
  1. For better emergency care, parking of quick response ambulances on national highways with a pilot project for cashless treatment of victims has been tried.
• Improved vehicular safety standards such as an Anti-locking brake system to be mandatory on heavy vehicles.
• Good Samaritan guidelines by the judiciary in 2016 (Save life foundation vs UoI 2016) and consequent government notification in 2020 to treat Samaritans with dignity by police.
• The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 inserted a new section 134A, viz., "Protection of Good Samaritans" which provides for the definition of a Good Samaritan and safeguards for them.
• Provisions for the safety of people such as mandatory third-party insurance norms increased penalties for deterrence on those violating norms, and increased use of technology as per the amendment of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019.
• Increased awareness measures through social, electronic, print media etc. Example- Delhi government’s launch of a 6-month road safety campaign on social media - Sadak Surakshit Dilli Surakshit in 2021.

Effective implementation of aspects of road safety policy alongside ensuring multistakeholder cooperation such as of non-government organisations, automotive firms etc. can ensure fulfilment of the right to life of everyone in India.