A perspective on traffic-related fatalities in India and scope for new vehicle crash safety tests. (13th October 2009) - Deb, Anindya
Road traffic safety is of substantial concern in India due to the sheer magnitude of total annual fatalities, numbering about 80, 000, caused by road accidents. In this context, India is at first compared with a number of other countries in the world. A comparison is then made of the states in India using a new composite fatality index introduced here. The distribution of fatalities due to road accidents is next reported within Karnataka, a state of reasonable size, population and economy. This is followed up by studying the safety of road users in the largest city of Karnataka i.e. Bangalore. Finally, it is pointed out that for countries such as India where full vehicle crash safety regulations are yet to be enforced, there is a scope for introducing new laboratory tests which are more cost-effective and representative of incompatible frontal collisions compared to the existing safety tests.