(a) whether it is a fact that India globally is continuing as one of the leaders in road accidents during the last five years, if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether it is a fact that the light body passenger vehicles are the top most reason for death and injuries of passengers therein;
(c) if so, the safety standards and the priority of safety instructions of the Government to the car makers/producers therefor; and
(d) the steps taken by the Government in this regard?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE
MINISTRY OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS
(SHRI PON. RADHAKRISHNAN)
(a) Road accidents details on all roads as received from police department of all States/UTs during the last five calendar years i.e. 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 in the country are given below:
Year Number of Road Accidents
2011 4,97,686
2012 4,90,383
2013 4,86,476
2014 4,89,400
2015 5,01,423
(b) Road accidents and road accidents fatalities are caused due to the complex interaction of a number of factors. These include driver’s fault, mechanical defects in the vehicles, fault of pedestrians, bad road, bad weather, increase in vehicular population, increase in population, heterogeneous traffic etc. It may not be possible to pin point any one reason for road accidents.
(c) & (d) The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued notification S.O. 1139 (E) dated 28.04.2015 for amendment of Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989 wherein compliance as per Crash Standards, Automobile Industry Standard 098 and Automotive Industry Standard 099 shall be mandatory for the new vehicles from 1st October 2017 and in case of existing vehicles same will apply from 1st October 2018.
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