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Men constitute around 81% of road accident injuries, but we tend to forget that it is not just the victims who are affected. Their families too bear the burden - economically, socially, emotionally. CAG talks to Ganesh and his sister, Sumathi about how a road accident in 2006 changed their lives. 

The other day, at the traffic lights, the “No U Turn” sign, with the red line slashed across the bent arrow, caught my eye. It occurred to me that these signs must be standard across the world. Otherwise, in addition to dealing with each country’s traffic idiosyncrasies, one would also have to learn and unlearn traffic signs. This got me wondering when this standardisation came about and what driving a vehicle must have been like before standards were set and implemented.

Pedestrians are at the bottom of the pecking order of Indian roads. They are a group to be honked at, splashed with dirty rainwater, and given nasty looks for having the temerity to cross the road when there a motorised vehicle within a one-kilometre radius. And of course, pavements for pedestrians are a waste of space. In short, pedestrians should not be allowed to exist.

On July 1, on a rather warm afternoon, over 600 students from several Chennai city colleges assembled on the Marina Beach in Chennai. They had come to participate in public awareness programme on road safety organised by CAG.

In a crowded country like India, where our senses are constantly assaulted by noises, colours and sights, its streets filled with jostling crowds and impatient vehicles competing for space and struggling to get past, it is no surprise that we have learnt to ignore anything extraneous to our own thoughts, needs and plans for the day.

On August 7^th 2016, I participated in a Traffic Awareness Campaign (TAC) organized by the Chennai-based volunteer group, Thozhan. My colleague, Prasanna Sugumaran had volunteered at a similar event some months ago and I decided to give it a shot, too.

Search ‘Indian traffic’ or ‘India driving’ on the Internet and what you find is a load of articles, memes, and videos on the madness that is driving in India. While these are amusing to read or watch, they underscore how dangerous Indian roads. On average 17 people die every hour on India’s roads. Most of these deaths (not to mention serious injuries) are the drivers’ fault, says Government of India data (Road Accidents in India 2015).

In the previous post on how the media (Tamil and English) covers road accidents, we looked at the kind of details provided, and sensationalism in the articles. This post, based on 104 of the 181 Tamil and English media reports that were published between January and April 2016, analyses reportage on the causes of accidents, geography (rural vs urban), and road user behaviour.

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] .

If you’ve spent any time on Indian roads, chances are you’ve seen an accident. Why, there is one every 4 minutes. So many that they are hard to escape – and I’m not saying that as a prophet of doom.