For teenagers, Delhi-NCR, Chennai lead in road safety lessons

Delhi-NCR leads the way among the five metro cities in the country in giving safety lessons to teenagers in schools but ranks last when it comes to the popularity of Road Safety Marshalls.
The revelations have come in a survey which covered more than 1,000 teenagers between the ages of 13-18 years in schools across the five metros - Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata - to gauge their awareness on road safety.
During the survey, over 75 per cent of the children said they have been through a safety drill at their schools with the National Capital Region and Chennai coming out on top with 85 per cent of the respondents saying they had taken part in such exercises followed by Bangalore with 50 per cent.

"The top two concerns of students across the five cities are road safety and traffic-related pollution, with more than 90 per cent of the students in agreement," says the survey.
"Focused safety education in schools ranged from 78 per cent in Chennai to 49 per cent in Bangalore.
"Road Marshalls are yet to become popular, with Chennai with 57 per cent ranking the highest in ensuring the presence of Road Safety Marshalls in schools followed by Bangalore and NCR with 27 per cent," the report added. Road Safety Marshalls are volunteers who help raise awareness about traffic-related issues.

The survey was conducted by UL (Underwriters Laboratories) in partnership with National Council of Science Museums.

The experience of the teenagers as commuters who use the roads every day was that it takes a long time to cross roads, especially at intersections and there is no place to stand at intersections while crossing roads. According to them, speeding and drunken driving are the two main reasons for road accidents.
As to 'where they get to see' emergency numbers displayed, 'housing societies' scored the lowest together with schools, school buses and bus stops.
Also, the general perception among them was that the process of obtaining driving licences is full of loopholes, leading to permits for dangerous and irresponsible drivers.

The poor condition of roads as well as "poor/absent" barricading around road digging/repair sites is also a cause of anxiety for students who travel on foot, the report said.
The survey covered 1,037 teenagers at schools in the five metros where its preliminary rounds were conducted. Seventy- five per cent of the respondents belonged to the age group of 13-15 years while the rest were aged between 16-18 years.
Forty-two per cent of the respondents were from Mumbai, which reported the maximum number of deaths in road accidents, followed by Bangalore (18 pc), NCR (17 pc) and others (12 pc).

Television topped as a source of safety-related information for students followed by parents and newspapers. Social media was behind the above two in this department despite being considered as youth-friendly.