Govt plans fund for ensuring road safety

The Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways will set up a road safety fund with an initial corpus of Rs 120 crore.

The amount will come from the cess on petrol and diesel that funds a part of the National Highway Development Project.

The fund will be managed by a national road safety board, which will promote best practices in road safety and traffic management and set standards for vehicle safety.

The board will ensure that automobile manufacturers comply with its recommendations on safety features like air safety bags, crumble zones, anti-lock brakes and cushioned bumpers for pedestrian safety. It will also fix the criterion for road-worthiness of vehicles for highways.

Sources say the board will set manufacturing norms to enable bicycles to be spotted in the dark and deliberate on de-merging motorised and non-motorised traffic. It will also undertake safety audit of roads and take corrective action.

"An institutional framework will be established to train and test drivers according to the standards prescribed in the Central Motor Vehicle Act (CMVA).

An Electronic database of all vehicles and drivers will be used to control traffic violations and the existing rules on helmets, seats belts, drunken driving and vehicle fitness will be effectively enforced," a member of the Road Safety and Traffic Management Committee said.

A centre of excellence for road safety research and education will be set up to provide institutional linkages and support to the commission and fund research on crash investigations and collection of data and and its analysis.

For allowing passengers to bear post-accident expenses, insurance reforms to cover the entire medical costs will be introduuced in consonance with the CMVA.

The ministry also plans to set up a dedicated highway force for national highways.

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A sorry tale

Over one lakh people die in road accidents in India every year

Over five lakh receive injuries and another 77 lakh are hospitalised annually

Around 32 per cent of those who die in road accidents are pedestrians

24 per cent are two-wheeler riders

15 per cent accidents involve passenger vehicles and 2 per cent involve cycles