Automobile body mulls road safety board

With a view to reducing the number of fatal road accidents in the country, the apex body for automobile manufacturers, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), today mooted the idea of setting up a National Road Safety Board (NRSB).

SIAM officials pointed out that over 80,000 Indians were killed in road accidents every year and that the social cost of road accidents in India was estimated to be over Rs 55,000 crore.

Statistics provided by SIAM also pointed out that India had one of the most unsafe roads in the world. While the number of fatalities per 10,000 vehicles is 14.54 for India, it is between 4.1 and 4.6 in other low-income countries like Brazil and Mexico.

High-income countries have less than two fatalities per 10,000 vehicles. Presently, the main bottlenecks in averting fatal road accidents are the absence of a national level policy on road safety and an agency that can collate accident data.

SIAM's president Jagdish Khattar, who is also the managing director of Maruti Udyog, said the NRSB could undertake a detailed collation and analysis of accident data.

Addressing the media in the Capital, Khattar said: "The NRSB should advise the government on road safety matters. It requires multi-disciplinary, coordinated and cohesive efforts that cover road and vehicle design, traffic management, enforcement and healthcare."

SIAM officials pointed out that the issues in the area of road safety were the lack of expertise in traffic management and safety research, and lack of dedicated road safety professionals in academic, research and training institutions.

SIAM's director-general Dilip Chenoy said: "Another big issue is that institutions are at present working in isolation. There is no coordination between policy makers, implementing agencies and researchers."

SIAM recommended the constitution of the proposed NRSB, which will have members from a wide range of disciplines, including automobile manufactures, officials from the transport department, researchers and academics.

SIAM also recommended that the government must set up more motor driving schools, phase in a modernised inspection and certification system for vehicles and set up test facilities to check vehicles for safety requirements, including crash-testing facilities.