Question : Road Crash Deaths

(a) whether the data as released recently relating to road crash deaths have exposed the lack of uniformity and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(b) whether India is a signatory to the Brasilia Declaration on Road Safety and committed to halving road crash deaths by 2020;

(c) if so, the details thereof and the extent to which road accident cases have been reduced;

(d) whether road accident data in our country are unreliable and not good for any research/remedy and if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto;

(e) whether the Government has started an exercise to revamp the format which local police used to report road crashes and forward them to Transport Research Wing and if so, the details thereof; and

(f) the steps taken by the Government to prepare authenticated data thereon which can be used for remedial purposes?

THE MINISTER OF ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS

(SHRI NITIN JAIRAM GADKARI)

(a) The Ministry analyses the road accidents data received from the Police Department of the States/UTs. The latest compiled data of road crash death available with the Ministry is for the calendar year 2017 as under:-
Years Total Number of accidents in the country Total Number of persons killed in road accident in the country
2017 4,64,910 1,47,913


Road accidents occur due to multiple causes such as use of Mobile phone, drunken driving/consumption of alcohol/ drug, overloaded Vehicle, poor light condition, jumping red light, over speeding, overtaking, neglect of civic bodies, weather condition, fault of driver, driving on wrong side, defect in road condition, defect in condition of motor vehicle, fault of cyclist, fault of pedestrian etc.

(b) & (c) The second global high level conference on Road Safety was organized on 18 -19th November, 2015 in Brasilia. India also participated in the conference. In the conference, it was agreed to halve the number of global deaths and injured from road traffic accidents by 2020. It was also agreed that road crashes are the leading cause of deaths around the world. It was also agreed that there is the need for countries to introduce, or improve and strengthen, arrangements for monitoring serious injuries from road traffic accidents. Data/information on road accidents received from the Police Department of all State/UTs for the calendar year 2017 reveals that the number of road accidents was down by 3.3% and the number of injuries by 4.8% in 2017 as compared to 2016.

(d) to (f) To review the existing road accident data collection / reporting format so as to make recording and reporting of road accident data more accurate, objective and ensuring coverage of all relevant information, a Committee was constituted consisting experts from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, IIT Kharagpur, World Health Organization (WHO), senior officers from Police and Transport Departments of States, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and officers of the Ministry. On the basis of the recommendations of the Committee, a revised uniform road accident recording and reporting format has been adopted since calendar year 2017.

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