The tremendous increase in the number of vehicles on Indian roads has also led to an increase in road accidents. India accounts for 10 per cent of the global road crash fatalities. Statistics shows that globally more than a million people die due to road accidents every year; if we do not do anything about it by 2020 this figure will double. Vehicular safety standards are a problem area.

Hence, the United Nations has announced 2011-20 as the “Decade of Action for Road Safety” with the aim to reduce fatalities by 50 per cent. The UN has identified 5 pillars to achieve this target i.e. Road Safety Management, Safer Roads and Mobility, Safer Road Users, Post Crash response and “Safer Vehicles”.

Effects of technology Under the Safer Vehicles pillar, the UN encourages the universal deployment of crash avoidance technologies like Electronics Stability Programme (ESP) and two wheeler Antilock Breaking System (ABS). Many countries have legislated or will soon legislate crash avoidance technologies like ESP and ABS. But India remains a laggard.

The 2011 Report of Ministry of road transport and highways, Government of India states that fatalities that year were 142,485, an average of one fatality per 3.5 minutes, one of the highest in the world. Approximately 43 per cent of the fatalities are from two-wheelers and cars.

We have also seen a reduction of fatalities in EU and China after adoption of safety technologies like ABS, Traction control System (TCS), airbags, side bags and ESP. In fact, the developed countries have laws in place for the use of more advanced technology like ESP, instead of ABS. Even developing countries like Argentina, Brazil, Columbia and Uruguay have legislation for airbag and ABS in 2014.

Similarly, if we look at the global installation rates of ABS and ESP, one can see that India is at the lowest level. The developed countries have higher adoption rates of ESP than ABS.

In the BRIC countries Brazil and Russia will soon have their respective legislations in place to take compliance to 100 per cent levels. China already has a very high adoption rate. Europe will make ABS mandatory even for two-wheelers next year (2015), while for cars, it has existed for seven years. In the long run, it will prove quite effective in avoiding accidents. India should go for the same, since the technology is already available.

India a laggard To improve traffic safety in India in general three major sectors have to be taken into account: People (education and infrastructure); Partners (OEM and suppliers); Government (the concerned ministries and departments). The Bosch accident research team has concluded with their extensive study that “Every fifth car accident on the Indian highway can be avoided by the intervention of car ABS”.

An in-depth study of 850 accidents (from May 2011 to January 2014) around Coimbatore and on the Mumbai-Pune expressway led the team to its conclusions.

The findings of the Road Accident Sampling System India, commissioned by Bosch, suggested that 20 per cent of all passenger car accidents with casualties on highways could have been avoided with ABS (six per cent could have been avoided during full braking, and 14 per cent during steering and braking).

Let’s strive for a vision of injury-free driving for India.

The writer is senior vice-president, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions

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