Why add quadricylces to tongas and tractors?

It was probably a long way to go to hear about the lack of safety on Indian roads. The journey to New Delhi to see firsthand all the aggression displayed on Indian roads by drivers was most instructive because I was on the way to attend a thoughtful seminar on road safety organised by a Chennai NGO. If you have come to believe, quite rightfully so, that namma Chennai roads are somewhat unsafe, wait till you get to the capital.

The grand mix of vehicles – from tongas to tractors, the humble 800cc to mighty three litre engine sports cars and zipping two-wheelers and dreaded autorickshaws to articulated double length buses – and the people and stray animals that also share space on Indian roads make for a grand spectacle of order within chaos. As an array of distinguished speakers and experts narrated the story of the need for road safety, the focus was on unsafe vehicles and how the government can help by not allowing any more on the roads than those already in existence.

The quadricycles from an Indian manufacturer aiming to hit the roads to replace the autorickshaws came in for vitriolic comments from a few speakers, particularly Mr Tripurari Ray, an eminent lawyer of the Supreme Court. He was wondering if a vehicle could be safer merely by virtue of having four doors. He spoke at length on the formal rules and regulations governing clearances for vehicles and how some auto makers search for loopholes to sneak in a vehicle on to the roads.

The European concept ‘car’ is meant for use as last mile connectivity in resorts, golf courses, Mr Kiran Kapila, an eminent authority on road safety, pointed out.  Such vehicles must also pass very stringent crash and safety tests before they can join the Indian road milieu. “All vehicles must be safety compliant whether they are 3-wheelers or 4-wheelers. Safety features must be added to existing vehicles as well, Mr Kapil said while making the valid point that retrofitting should be possible to make older vehicles also safety compliant.

The startling facts on road fatalities simply took the breath away. To think that India contributes 11 percent to all the road deaths that take place around the world with just about two crore vehicles creating such mayhem is to believe that Indians care very little about safety on the roads. Over a million lives have been lost in the last one decade on our roads.

And it is not only the highways with little enforcement on speed limits and driving standards that are killing Indians. About 17 to 18% of fatalities occur in city limits where the driving speeds are perforce slower.

The year 2014 was a progression on the preceding deadly years as it accounted for 1.41 lakh road deaths and left eight lakh people injured. In six years, the number of vehicles in India shot up from 87 lakhs to a little over two crores and every minute more vehicles are being sold. The startling statistic of one Indian dying on the road every four minutes should sober up those who believe their dalliance with speed and recklessness or drink can be overcome by their bloated opinion of their own prowess behind the steering wheel or the two ends of the handle bar.

A woman activist and a corporate executive, both named Archana, lent the feminine touch to the proceedings, speaking of women’s safety in going from living spaces to the workplace and how men drivers react to women behind wheels on the roads. The speakers set us all thinking about how an Indian’s right to life can be better served if only the roads are made a safer place. When an unsafe vehicle sought export orders while still being unlicensed in India, a Nigerian importer was supposed to have asked – “Why don’t you kill Indians first?” That sums up succinctly the national attitude to road safety.