Road Safety needs to be converted into a people’s movement, MoRTH Secretary
Over last one and half-year Ministry has readied disaggregated data for data-driven interventions in road-safety
We need to convert road-safety from a set of statistics to a people’s movement and take it to every district, every person in the country said Shri V Umashankar, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) at CII National Conclave of Road Safety on Thursday at New Delhi.
Every accident spot has a story, every blackspot has a story and understanding those stories will help us come up with local and contextual solutions to improve road-safety, he said. “We keep on developing our infrastructure, we improve the quality of our vehicles. But the accidents and fatalities on the road don't seem to be coming down. Our roads are wider and better, our vehicles have more safety features, but accident numbers are not coming down, because we are not making road safety a people’s movement,” said Shri Umashankar.
The Secretary said that behind every accident there could be one of these or a combination of these factors— road vehicle behaviour (RVB), Road related issue, vehicle related issue, or behavioural issue, which needs to be analysed on a case-to-case basis to understand and reduce accidents at larger level. He said that over last one and a half years the ministry has started getting disaggregated data on e-Detailed Accident Report (eDAR) platform which is proving crucial in understanding the stories behind the accidents and will lead to more data-driven interventions in days to come. The Secretary exhorted industry members to adopt districts for conducting such detailed analysis of accidents and taking the results to local administration and government stakeholders for action.
“A case study in Nagpur under the leadership of Shri Gadkari ji, (Union Minister of Roads, Transport and Highways) an extensive road safety program has been launched focusing on protection of commercial vehicles and their operators. The initiative emphasizes three vital components, ensuring vehicle safety, conducting mobility assessments and improving road infrastructure safety through integration of artificial intelligence. We are committed to the ambitious but achievable goal of reducing road accident facilities by 50% by 2030 in alignment with the UN's Decade of Action for Road Safety” said Mr. Rajiv Memani, President Designate, CII and Chairman & CEO, EY India.
Citing examples, Mr Vinayak Pai, Chair, CII National Committee of Roads and Highways, and CEO & Managing Director, Tata Projects Ltd said “Technology can play a significant role in improving road safety. The industry must collaborate with the ministry (of roads transport and highways) to make meaningful difference in road safety.”