"India's Road Fatality Crisis Demands a Safe System Approach"
Safe System Approach
An international road safety framework that designs infrastructure assuming human error is inevitable, aiming to reduce crash probability and severity.
Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019
India's primary road safety legislation that raised penalties, created the National Road Safety Board, and enabled electronic enforcement.
India has one of the world's worst road safety records relative to its vehicle fleet size. Despite accounting for roughly 1% of the world's vehicular fleet, India contributes approximately 11% of global road traffic fatalities. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 was the most significant legislative reform in this space in recent decades. It raised penalties for traffic violations substantially, created the National Road Safety Board, and introduced provisions for electronic monitoring and third-party insurance reforms. The Act marked a shift from purely punitive enforcement toward a more systemic approach to road safety governance.
India's broader policy commitment is anchored in the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, which set a global target of halving road fatalities. Domestically, the National Road Safety Policy has promoted the 'five Es' framework: engineering, enforcement, education, emergency care, and environment. Road crashes impose an estimated cost of roughly 3% of GDP annually, making this a significant economic and public health challenge, not merely a traffic management issue. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has pursued vehicle safety ratings through the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (BNCAP) and infrastructure upgrades under the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Road safety governance in India operates across multiple layers. At the legislative level, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019 provides the primary framework, covering penalties, licensing, insurance, and vehicle standards. At the institutional level, the National Road Safety Board is mandated to advise the central and state governments on road safety standards and policy. However, actual enforcement remains fragmented, with chronic shortages in traffic police cadres and inconsistent state-level implementation.
The 'Safe System' approach is an internationally recognised framework, adopted widely in high-income countries, that designs road infrastructure and policy on the assumption that human error is inevitable. Rather than placing the entire burden of safety on individual behaviour, it requires governments to reduce both the probability and the severity of crashes. …
Consider the following statements regarding road traffic fatalities in India:
1.India accounts for approximately 11% of global road traffic fatalities despite having only 1% of the world's vehicular fleet.
2.Two-wheeler riders constitute the largest share of road deaths in India, followed by pedestrians.
3.Speeding is the dominant recorded violation associated with road fatalities in India.
4.Seat belts and child restraint systems can address the majority of road fatalities in India.
How many of the above statements are correct?
Which of the following were introduced or established by the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019?
1.National Road Safety Board
2.Provisions for electronic monitoring of traffic violations
3.Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (BNCAP)
4.Substantially higher penalties for traffic violations
Select the correct answer using the code below:
Consider the following statements about India's road safety policy framework:
1.The 'Safe System' approach has been systematically adopted by both the Union government and state governments.
2.Road crashes impose an estimated cost of approximately 3% of India's GDP annually.
3.The UN Decade of Action for Road Safety set a global target of halving road fatalities.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
With reference to road traffic fatalities in India, which of the following statements best explains why enforcing seat belt compliance alone is an insufficient strategy to significantly reduce overall road deaths?
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