Over 1 lakh road fatalites each year

Chennai: South India leads in the number of road accidents and the country has lost more youth to road accid­ents than to any other cal­amity, say office-bearers of  Automobile Assoc­ia­ti­on of South India (AASI).

India accounts for ar­ound 10 per cent of global road accidents and people in between the age group of 15-40 years account for 60 per cent of these accidents, with more than 1 lakh lives lost due to road accidents annually, said Mr T.D. Sadasivam, president, AA­SI, during an in­te­ractive session on road safety he­ld here on Satu­rday.

He added that it is estimated that Indians spend around 10-12 per cent of our lifetime on roads, and with the rise in the number of vehicles everyday this is bound to increase in the coming years.
He added, “Ironically, de­v­eloped countries with more vehicles have seen a drop in the rate of accidents while road accide­n­ts are a growing concern in developing countries.”

AASI has won a grant from the Fédération Inter­nationale de l'Aut­omobile located in Paris early this year and this has been used to create educational films on road safety and also to sensitise people on the need for responsible behaviour on the roads.

The films were produ­ced by Kavithalayaa Pro­ductions, and its executive director Kanda­sw­amy Bharathan says “Gi­ven the power of the me­dium of films, we loo­ked at how we could educate the road users to modify their  behaviour through im­p­actful messaging.” The films will be formally released on Ja­nu­ary 7.