India needs to strictly enforce road safety norms, educate citizens to reduce accidents: Experts

The recent death of Cyrus Mistry in a road accident has once again raised questions about vehicle and structural safety of roads in the country.

Around 1.5 lakh deaths take place in road accidents every year. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has come up with draft rules that make it mandatory for car manufacturers to install an alarm system for rear seatbelts. Issuing a notification on the draft rules, the ministry has invited comments/suggestions from the public till October 5.

According to the draft proposal, cars will also come with a speed alert system to check speeding and a manual override for the central locking system. The government is also urging car makers to install six air bags in all cars, though the timeline for the six-airbag rule is likely to be extended.

Vijay Chhibber, Former Secretary of Road Transport and Highways, in an interview with CNBC-TV18, said India is extremely lax when it comes to enforcing road safety.

“We seem to discuss issues relating to road safety only when there is a major event, like the Cyrus Mistry accident. Road safety is becoming a public health emergency in the country for the last many years. In 2014 itself India had decided to follow EU’s road safety architecture norms, maybe with a lag of 3-4 years to enable the industry to catch up. However India seems to very casual in terms of enforcement — the ‘chalta hai’ attitude can be seen across the board”, Chhibber said.

He added that the country needs a road safety programme on the lines of the Swachh Bharat campaign.

Vikram Kirloskar, Vice-Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motors, said onus must be placed on everyone, and not just vehicle manufacturers.

“Road minister Nitin Gadkari has been continuously (stressing) on road safety and the number of deaths in India. He has been trying his best to introduce more regulations on vehicles. However it is not just the vehicle alone — ofcourse the vehicles have to be safe and have to meet international standards on safety, but we have to look at the entire ecosystem. The quality of the roads, training of the drivers, behavior of people who are driving cars on the road and ensure that everyone follows rules and regulations.”

Kirloskar added that India needs to educate everyone about road safety.

“If you drive on a highway, you see people overtaking left, right and centre — these are fundamental traffic rule issues and safety driving issues. So it is not all dependent on the car, it is also on the attitude of the driver towards safety, attitude of the pedestrians towards safety," he said.