International practices in road safety and potential lessons for India

The years 2011-2020 have been designated as the Decade of Action for Road Safety by the World Health Organisation (WHO). This is a global acknowledgement of the gravity of road safety issues across the world and the lives being lost to it. Internationally, road accidents kill as many people as the major pandemics, malaria and TB^[1] . Mistakenly perceived as an inevitable consequence of economic development, road accidents are the biggest cause of mortality among men and women between the ages of 10 and 45, except in the countries worst affected by HIV/AIDS, where this disease remains the biggest killer. India, touted to be an emerging superpower and expanding at a significant pace, has fallen victim all too easily, to this unfortunate trend. India loses a life every four minutes to a road accident. 10% of all road accident deaths take place on Indian roads^[2].

Analysing road accident data across nations and over time, a pattern emerges of a rise in road accidents with increasing income. This can be attributed to a rapid rise in the number of motor vehicles. With time and even higher levels of income, come better road systems and enforcement of safer practices and lower mortality rates^[3].

In this blog, I look at road safety practices in countries which have successfully targeted and reduced their incidence of road accidents and what India can learn from these initiatives. This blog looks primarily at innovations promoted by the  SUN nations (Sweden, the UK and the Netherlands) which are the world leaders in road safety. While we cannot use a one-size-fits-all approach with road safety, successful elements of various approaches can be tailored to fit the Indian scenario.

Enforcement

In the early seventies, several nations identified the role of enforcement as critical in improving road safety. Several European nations have speed cameras which capture  speeding drivers. Drunken driving is monitored by random breathalyser assessments and by checking blood alcohol levels of involved parties in the event of an accident. Penalties for violating laws on seatbelts, child restraints, speed limits, mobile phone usage, even eating whilst driving, keep road safety issues high on a driver’s minds.

The UK follows a penal system whereby remedial education is offered to those who make mistakes and low level offences, while tougher sanctions are reserved for those who are deliberately dangerous.

Strict enforcement can be a means of raising valuable funds that can go towards advancing other road safety mechanisms. In Uganda, for example, the cost of a speed enforcement programme was USD 70,000 which was recovered within the first year in fines alone, totalling USD 400,000^[4].

Road infrastructure

Sweden’s Vision Zero policy adopted in 1997 enshrines the nation’s belief that even one life lost on the road is one too many. It believes that within the interaction of the road system, unpredictable outcomes are possible as human error is inevitable. The country therefore owes to every road user the creation of a safe system where, even in the event of an unpredictable outcome, energy levels are kept low such that it does not cross the threshold of what the human body can bear. Their road systems are designed to prevent crashes and, in the event of a crash, eliminate or minimise injuries.

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Several nations around the world have since adopted the Vision Zero policy, designing roads and road sides to be forgiving and  forcing low speeds in residential and other built up areas. Rumble strips are built into road edges or between lanes carrying traffic in opposite directions. Driving over this provides a driver with tactile and auditory feedback alerting him to the dangers of changing lanes. Variable message boards announcing changes in required speed or weather conditions have been applied successfully by several countries.

Road safety innovations are based on research findings. The SUN nations have an apex body that leads on road safety research and cascades the information to local councils and corporations.

Driver training

While countries vary in their approved age for licensing, all countries which have successfully reduced their road fatalities have one thing in common – a written code of conduct taught and tested systematically. In the UK, this is called the Highway Code. What the Motor Vehicles Act states in legal terms, the Highway Code will make accessible to every learner driver in a language that she can understand.

In the UK, the first part of the driving test is a test on the Highway Code. The UK also assesses a prospective driver on his/her ability to spot, and quickly and safely respond to traffic hazards in the Hazard Perception Test.

In Denmark, driving instructors are expected to follow a curriculum which leads from easier to more challenging tasks, alternating between theory and practice. There is an emphasis on defensive driving (unlike the emphasis on the implicitly imbibed offensive driving style on Indian roads) and hazard perception. The new programme reduced crash risk by 7% in the first year of driving^[5].

Vehicle safety

All ‘road safe’ countries insist on vehicles being crash worthy. The European New Car Assessment Programme performs crash tests on the most popular cars available in Europe. The results, which are declared publicly, are based on adult occupant protection, child protection and pedestrian protection. Other protective devices include increasing the conspicuity of the vehicle such as Daytime Running Lights (a legal requirement in countries with adverse weather conditions for all motor vehicles to run with low beams even in daylight) and Bicycle Side Lighting (where the front and the rear bicycle wheels are covered in bright reflective material to increase its visibility).

Based on the finding that a number of vulnerable road users are killed by trucks turning left because of the poor visibility on that side of the vehicle, trucks in Europe with a gross weight of 7.5+ tonnes now have to be equipped with two rear view mirrors on the left side (or the co-drivers side): one mirror with a wide angle and one special mirror to recognise pedestrians and bicyclists. Side underrun protection in trucks are also compulsory in Europe to prevent vulnerable road users from sliding under the wheels of a moving truck.

Bull bars, which were originally devised to protect a car against bull strikes,  have been known to cause significant damage^[6] to vulnerable road users. In 2001, European, Japanese and Korean car makers committed^[7] to stop manufacturing cars with bull bars but these are still readily available as a bought accessory in the Indian markets.

Conclusion

Considering that road accidents have reached alarming levels in India, it is important that action is taken as a matter of urgency to improve road conditions and road user capabilities. Several countries have demonstrated how road safety standards can be improved through a well-articulated road safety vision, sustained effort and investment. And the pay offs for these efforts can be exceptionally rewarding. While it is anticipated that road accidents cost India three percent² of its GDP , we can put no cost on the lives which are being lost everyday.