Road Safety In India

[VA_INDIAN]

Time to revive this thread, when this new report on India being world's road death capital emerges, After seeing the pic of auto I kept seeing if it was real pic



http://in.yfittopostblog.com/2010/06/08/dying-daily/

[r2i_real]

VA_INDIAN,

Just like you, the road safety is the sourest point of my r2i plans. If I ever cancel my r2i, this will be the top reason. I concur with all the thoughts/feelings you expressed. I shudder at the thought of my kids trying to cross the maniac city traffic, it's like keeping your life at stake everytime you step out of your home. Thinking of all this, I get a guilt pang sometimes if we are doing any injustice to our kids by moving back. These are just my personal thoughts to indicate how serious I am about the road safety issue.

That being said, you had made a point earlier about educating/raising aawareness among the drivers. I am thinking quite seriously to do something on this. I did some basic research and there are some NGOs operating in different parts of the country (e.g. www.arrivesafe.org in Chadigarh) who work on this issue. I hope to join one of these upon my return (I keep thinking it's easier said than done to join a NGO and do something for the country, hopefully the urge remains once we are settled in a daily routine in india).

Based on the few articles I had read, the truck and bus drivers are involved in ~50% of deaths. I envision establishing some kind of teaching/awareness campaign targeted specifically at these audience. One can approach the local municipal corporator/city mayor to get the public transit drivers and truck unions on-board (this might require some strings to be pulled, that's where an established NGO can use its influence). The campaign focus can be 1) to bring these drivers in line with the driving rules...one at a time....2) try to instill some driving culture change among them by telling them stories of real accidents (that they have casued and seen), bad reputation they earn...and using the mytholigical argument, after-life in hell for them for the sins they are committing. There can be lot of ways to motivate/educate these folks if one can get a commitmment from the govt. administration...At the same time, some other issues might surface as a result that can be highlighted to appropriate authorities (such as very tight schedule for the drives, lack of trained drivers etc.)..

All this might sound very amateur and too easy to be accomplished....but just my thoughts...

Thanks for your time.

[GutsyGibbon]

Based on the few articles I had read, the truck and bus drivers are involved in ~50% of deaths. I envision establishing some kind of teaching/awareness campaign targeted specifically at these audience. One can approach the local municipal corporator/city mayor to get the public transit drivers and truck unions on-board (this might require some strings to be pulled, that's where an established NGO can use its influence). The campaign focus can be 1) to bring these drivers in line with the driving rules...one at a time....2) try to instill some driving culture change among them by telling them stories of real accidents (that they have casued and seen), bad reputation they earn...and using the mytholigical argument, after-life in hell for them for the sins they are committing. There can be lot of ways to motivate/educate these folks if one can get a commitmment from the govt. administration...At the same time, some other issues might surface as a result that can be highlighted to appropriate authorities (such as very tight schedule for the drives, lack of trained drivers etc.)..

For starters, everyone of us can report their own company's bus drivers to HR. Report our cab driver to the owner. Report other call center cab drivers to their HR/facilities.
I have heard of Volvo having a very good India specific safety training course for drivers and mechanics. These days the transport companies are not trusting their trucks costing 60 lakhs to cleaners/kids. Truck operators are also trained on acceptable number of driving hours and the advantage of having a secondary driver to make sure schedules are not slipped. A lot of these were in place during the times of Ravi Uppal in Volvo - Hoskote. I can only imagine awareness about availability of training has improved these days.
There are tons of other smaller operators who can use this training. Perhaps you can attend the training offered by Volvo and fine tune/reuse that to train other smaller operators.

That said, most of the accidents that are in the city (not highways/expressways) only cause bruises, & broken bones. Kids of R2Iers would probably never ever try to cross a highway. The nasty accidents in the city are the ones after midnight by people jumping lights, or driving drunk. There is no way we can die within the city when you are stuck in jams 100% of the time. R2I'ers may get frustrated in the traffic and hurt ourselves, but thats a different story. My veteran R2ied friend once told me - Get kids into a school that has a bus, get a good SUV with airbags, wear your seatbelts, your life is golden. Much safer than LA. (in the city, daytime)

They should stop showing accident victims, and mangled cars in newspapers and TV news. People mixup traffic snarls with safety.

[VA_INDIAN]

You are on the dot sir, I share same feelings with you . That is my biggest concern (Road safety) and there are reasons behind that. I have seen people dieing , badly injured etc. Not only driving rashly is a problem but lack of proper medical emergency system, law and order problems due to which passerby dont help are also to be added to the entire situation. It is very tough to resolve all these issues.

If I have to vote India a third world country, just the traffic base is enough . Connecting with NGO is good idea and thanks for remembering and reminding me too that I had mentioned about working with NGO, the small thing like distributing printed pamplets can also do wonders and that will cost very less. If like minded people join it can be more easy

I concur with you on the thought where in you say that we get a surge in emotions and want to do something once we go back to India, but sometimes that is not lasted once we return, also we may try and give up soon . However something like road safety requires efforts from all sides incl law enforcement and general public.

I sometimes wonder what is the use or licence in India? Also there is nothing called car safety inspection. The entire process is adhoc...

By the way when are you planning to R2I , I will be R2I in July

VA_INDIAN,

Just like you, the road safety is the sourest point of my r2i plans. If I ever cancel my r2i, this will be the top reason. I concur with all the thoughts/feelings you expressed. I shudder at the thought of my kids trying to cross the maniac city traffic, it's like keeping your life at stake everytime you step out of your home. Thinking of all this, I get a guilt pang sometimes if we are doing any injustice to our kids by moving back. These are just my personal thoughts to indicate how serious I am about the road safety issue.

That being said, you had made a point earlier about educating/raising aawareness among the drivers. I am thinking quite seriously to do something on this. I did some basic research and there are some NGOs operating in different parts of the country (e.g. www.arrivesafe.org in Chadigarh) who work on this issue. I hope to join one of these upon my return (I keep thinking it's easier said than done to join a NGO and do something for the country, hopefully the urge remains once we are settled in a daily routine in india).

Based on the few articles I had read, the truck and bus drivers are involved in ~50% of deaths. I envision establishing some kind of teaching/awareness campaign targeted specifically at these audience. One can approach the local municipal corporator/city mayor to get the public transit drivers and truck unions on-board (this might require some strings to be pulled, that's where an established NGO can use its influence). The campaign focus can be 1) to bring these drivers in line with the driving rules...one at a time....2) try to instill some driving culture change among them by telling them stories of real accidents (that they have casued and seen), bad reputation they earn...and using the mytholigical argument, after-life in hell for them for the sins they are committing. There can be lot of ways to motivate/educate these folks if one can get a commitmment from the govt. administration...At the same time, some other issues might surface as a result that can be highlighted to appropriate authorities (such as very tight schedule for the drives, lack of trained drivers etc.)..

All this might sound very amateur and too easy to be accomplished....but just my thoughts...

Thanks for your time.

[r2i_real]

Another hair raising incident on B'lore roads, BMTC bus runs over a standing bike, how can you, as a driver, just do it?

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/74501/biker-killed-serial-crash.html

I don't mean to post depressing news here, but I am just stressing the point that bus/truck drivers are a big culprit in the overall state of road safety. And as per my earlier post, given that this is an 'organized' sector (BMTC, truck unions...compared to individual drivers), they are the most appropriate target for any awareness/education campaign.

As I said, I am keen to do something on this front once back in India, I keep wondering if there's anythign we can do from here???

VA_INDIAN? others? any ideas?

[r2i_real]

By the way when are you planning to R2I , I will be R2I in July

Target is mid-2011 or earlier if I can get a job..

Not sure about your target indian city? I am assuming B'lore??

I am visiting B'lore in Oct this year..would love to meet if possible..

[PeterGriffin]

By the way when are you planning to R2I , I will be R2I in July

It would be immensely helpful for others if you could start out a diary and blog your experiences/reasons. Being a senior member in this forum, your first-hand experience will help out a lot of R2Iers.

[VA_INDIAN]

I am going to Pune. Let see if we can meet once you are in India.

Regarding doing something from here. I am not sure how much we can do, except that we can connect with a NGO like you said there is one in Chandigarh or something and financially support them with ideas. That is better than nothing I suppose. Back in India we can do a lot, even speaking to your neighbor or to others while driving can become our contribution towards doing something while being there

Target is mid-2011 or earlier if I can get a job..

Not sure about your target indian city? I am assuming B'lore??

I am visiting B'lore in Oct this year..would love to meet if possible..

[VA_INDIAN]

Not a bad idea, I will try and post .

It would be immensely helpful for others if you could start out a diary and blog your experiences/reasons. Being a senior member in this forum, your first-hand experience will help out a lot of R2Iers.

[VA_INDIAN]

Ambulance without life support is of no use. I am not sure what purpose it holds given in conjusted Indian cities , just to pick up and ferry?

But it is also important that India which we want to live we also do something to make things better, however small they may be. If each one of us starts doing small things, big impacts can be noticed in due course. Like minded people can do a lot too.

I really agree to your views , since i have returned I know the things practically happening but all I can say is that every thing is unplanned as far as road safety is concerned. a small example is a ambulance here with no life support system at all in it. What use would that be when the victim would surely not survive the transit to the nearest hospital with the traffic congention here. An Ambulance here is just a car with a headlight for transit. Rest all is left on faith.