Book talks of importance of road safety through stories

A book attempts to make readers realise the importance of road safety not through guidelines and rules but interesting stories about how to be always careful on the road.
"Have a Safe Journey: The World's First Collection of Short Stories on Road Safety" has stories by bestselling writers like Ashwin Sanghi, Anand Neelakantan and Shinie Antony as well as tales drawn out from a countrywide story writing contest on road safety issues.
Published by Amaryllis, the book is billed as probably the first compilation of short stories on the topic of road safety.
It has a foreword by Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari. There is also a special message by Anand Mahindra, Executive Chairman of Mahindra Group.

The book is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Mahindra Truck & Bus Division and Natural Habitat Preservation Centre.
It includes 25 stories of pain, loss and hope that make the readers realise the dangers of drunken driving, talking on the phone while driving, speeding, importance of wearing helmets and seatbelts, use of a baby seat, etc.

The stories also talk about the importance of helping road accident victims and being a good Samaritan instead of running away from accident sites.
The stories are not preachy; instead they use humour, wit, tragedy, horror and futuristic ideas to encourage readers to observe traffic rules and drive safe.

Around 1.25 million people die each year globally as a result of road traffic crashes, according to the Global Road Safety Report, 2015 by the World Health Organisation.
In India, around 1.5 lakh people die in around five lakh road accidents reported every year across the country.
In the foreword, Gadkari writes, "One of the main reasons for the high casualty rate of road accident victims was the huge amount of time wasted in making quality emergency care available to them."
He says the role of the automobile sector in promoting road safety is very crucial.
"And here, I wish to laud the efforts of the Mahindra Group and my friend Anand Mahindra for always coming up with innovative initiatives to create awareness about the issue. I am impressed by the #HaveASafeJourney initiative, which harnesses the power of written stories to educate readers about the gravity of the problem," Gadkari writes.

"I am very optimistic that initiatives such as #HaveASafeJourney will open up new avenues to make road safety a people's movement," he adds.