The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is commemorated on the third Sunday of November each year. But for those who have lost loved ones to road crashes, every day is a reminder of a preventable tragedy, writes a mother who started a road safety foundation after a carelessly driven school bus in Jaipur killed her teenage daughter
By Dr. Mridul Bhasin
In 1999, my 17-year old daughter was killed by an out-of-control bus. The driver had previous infractions of drunk driving. There were several bystanders and passers-by, but no one stopped to help.
It is still difficult to think about this profoundly tragic experience.
Who or what should we blame in these instances? The driver who was directly responsible? Or the government, which failed to enforce traffic rules and keep dangerous drivers off the road, or our societal road safety norms which promote risky behaviour and have no provisions for when “accidents” occur?
When we think of the sheer number of human lives lost in road traffic crashes in the Southasia* region, we begin to realise that we need to build our own road safety infrastructure using shared policy initiatives and best practices.
The region is home to an estimated 1.7 billion people, representing around 25 percent of the world’s population and also accounts for 25 percent of the world’s road crash fatalities. This, although it is the world’s least urbanised region, with only 10 percent of the world’s vehicles.
Southasia is aspirational in terms of economic progress, acquisition of transport vehicles and development of roads. Its automobile market is one of the fastest growing in the world with automobile manufacturers eying the region to increase sales. Despite this projected growth, the region struggles to implement meaningful countermeasures to automobile related injuries and deaths.
The WHO estimates that about 1.3 million people lose their lives every year to road traffic crashes. Low and middle income countries bear a disproportionate share in this, with 93% percent of the fatalities taking place in the Southasian region.
The role of non-governmental organisations in mitigating the issue is essential, especially in developing countries. As governments balance competing priorities, NGOs have made increasing headway in promoting road safety measures. The WHO in collaboration with the Alliance for NGOs has even published a guidebook, Advocating for Emergency Care: A Guide for Non-governmental organizations (2023).
After our daughter’s passing, my husband and I started the Muskaan Foundation for Road Safety, with the aim of building a culture of safety on roads through Awareness, Education, Training and Advocacy.
While road safety is not a current priority for our government or politicians, as part of civil society, we’ve learned to emphasise, underline, and fight for it.
Awareness is key to changing public opinion in favour of road safety legislation. For instance, in 2012, the SaveLIFE Foundation initiated a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Rajasthan, requesting the Supreme Court of India to safeguard those who help the injured. In 2016, the Supreme Court gave “force of law” to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways that protect Good Samaritans.
The Good Samaritan Law is a bill passed by the Supreme Court of India on March 26, 2016, made possible through exemplary legal advocacy by social entrepreneur Piyush Tiwari who heads the SaveLIFE Foundation.
This has helped protect individuals who help road crash victims from police and legal procedural hassles, thus encouraging speedy help by bystanders to any road crash victim or victim of a disaster. Later, it was included in the amended draft of the Motor Vehicle Act 2019 of India and is applicable across India.
By collaborating and sharing expertise and best practices, Southasian countries can reduce these numbers. The World Bank Group study on the trade corridors of the eastern subregion of Southasia highlight the commonalities that represent the factors which undermine road safety in the area.
These findings, published in the guide book, note that:
- Road safety risks in regional trade corridors reflecting network-wide risks.
- Regional crash data management and analysis tools are generally poor
- quality. There are a few exceptions in certain states of India.
- Regional trade corridor infrastructure is unsafe and functionally deficient.
- The wide variety of vehicles—in terms of both size and speed undermines road safety.
- Unsafe road user behaviours, like speeding, the nonuse of seat belts and safety helmets, unsafe overtaking, wrong-way driving, the nonuse of vehicle lights, risky road crossing by pedestrians, heavy vehicle overloading, and driver fatigue.
The humanitarian aim to improve emergency care must precede other changes that have to be brought to ensure safer roads in any country in the region. Implementing the steps laid out in the WHO guidebook can help reduce casualties resulting from a lack of infrastructure in emergency care. It provides step by step guidance about what can be done and how well-meaning organisations can bring about a change in the emergency care system in Southasian countries.
Muskaan/Southasia Peace road safety song #StreetsForLife
Mridul Bhasin is a longtime social activist, writer and translator. She holds a PhD in American Literature from Emory University, Atlanta and is a co-founder and trustee of the Muskaan Foundation for Road Safety in Jaipur, India. Email: jaipurmuskaan@gmail.com.
Lead image: ‘On Road Campaign’ by Muskaan Foundation for Road Safety
NOTE:
19 Nov. 2023: Section about the Good Samaritan law corrected and updated, to reflect that it was a PIL, not a writ petition, initiated in 2012. The Supreme Court ruled on the PIL in 2016 and made it binding across the country.
21 Nov. 2023: The word “accidents” placed in quotes, and “road traffic accidents” changed to “road traffic crashes” to reflect that these tragedies are preventable.
— This is a Sapan News syndicated feature
*Southasia: Borrowing from Himal Southasian, Sapan uses ‘Southasia’ as one word, “seeking to restore some of the historical unity of our common living space, without wishing any violence on the existing nation-states.”
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Also published in:
- South Asia Journal: Fatal road crashes in Southasia: From preventible to preventing,19 Nov 2023
- South Asia Monitor, New Delhi: South Asia’s unacceptably high road fatalities: Need to bring about changes in emergency-care system, 20 Nov 2023