Indian Traffic: *Not* A Joke

Killer roads
Mihir Srivastava

India Today

Please read the full article at India Today

It is a long one, and I've only covered the first few pages tonight.

It really is true when we tell people they have more chance of dying on the roads than in a terrorist attack!

Just one more snippet that caught my eye: Indian road deaths are rising at 8% per year.

Yup.....Probably we are producing more people than roads and downtown is like hell in cities like Mumbai if someone stays far off..

what's the answer? I mean, people drive like idiots (even here!), so more education? enforcing the laws? more traffic signals?

I have to say that I don't see too many traffic signals in Chennai, i.e., like here. or else maybe I'm just too involved in looking at other stuff!

One of the figures has to be wrong, 7 Billion people in the world, 1 Billion Indians, my maths isn't great, but even I can work out the figures are wrong.

(I agree the roads are a death trap)

There's a lot of foreigners and tourists that die in road accidents in India

I would not blame traffic or drivers alone, its the general attitude of people including me.

I might agree that traffic is bad, but people who are not driving are equally to blame, they just walk on the roads, cross the roads from wherever they want, even if a crossing is 50 meters away. Just cross the road regardless of the signal.

And the same people get the behind the steering and drive carelessly.

Yes, it astonishes me how little grasp people have on the realities of this. When I see a woman who has said she's afraid to drive in the dark in her perfectly safe home town getting into her car and not putting the seat belt on, it makes me despair for the sanity of society.

There are some US statistics here... http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/d...ngerStats.html and I'd be interested to see the Indian equivalent.

Per mile travelled it multiples of the US figure which in itself is the equivalent of an ongoing medium sized war..

In Italy they raised the speed limit , because the govt thought the faster you travel the more you have to concentrate. A mate of mine hit a cow on a fly over in Delhi, at 240kmh--full protective gear he walked away with bruises. I worry about selling 200 horsepower motorcycles in India, with cows grazing on the roads. In Aust it costs about 2 or 3 hundred dollars to get your licence-- In Sweden aus$3200- the swedes look upon a drivers licence as a privelidge, not a right. All this is i guess hardly relevent to India, but i think i would prefer to see mum, dad and the kids on a scooter than stuffed into a Nano

Do you have any Idea what you are talking about

Talk about people dying on the road and they themselves carry half the blame. I'm a regular rider on the roads of Bangalore and see people jumping red lights regularly. What happens next? Cop probably sees him and stops him. Next minute he is off after greasing the cop's hand. One step in the larger solution will be enforcing stricter rules, higher fines and no getting off with bribes. And of course driving some sense into those thick skulls!!
as early in high school. Hopefully then things will look up. Until then pray you don't get run over!

In the UK, what has saved as many if not more lives than driver training and law enforcement is the basic safety, often unnoticed, that goes into our cars and highway infrastructure.

Things that have contributed to reducing deaths on British roads:

Consistent white lining
Good running surfaces
Skid resistant treatments
Accident blackspot measures
Collapsible sign posts
Safety cameras
Effective highway drainage systems
Vehicle restraint systems (safety barriers)
Road lighting
Intelligent positioning of street furniture
Crumple zones on cars
Seat belts
Air bags
Yearly vehicle safety checks
Speed limits
Roll cages...

Yes, India has some of those things in some places, but nowhere near at the level we take for granted in the west.

EDITED TO ADD: Lets not forget the larger proportion of westerners with basic medical / first aid knowledge and most of all the speed and quality of levels of paramedic care which has saved so many lives where there have been serious injuries.

I'd be willing to bet that there are very few emergency air ambulances in Delhi which are available for the general public following an accident - but my home city has one, not provided by the government but funded solely by charitable donations.

In Finland, driving fines are calculated as a percentage of annual income. A Nokia hotshot was fined a couple of weeks wages - that came to 12 million dollars or so for speeding- later reduced to 100,000 USD because his reported income changed, or something like that.

That is what India needs. Strict and enforced laws. For example, if you survive a crash caused by your negligence, you will be then shot.

Possibly not, after all i am only a waiter at the banquet of life. What i was trying to get across is how crazy it seems that the Indian govt allow these high end super vehicles access to the road system. Your average rural Indian, can hardly grasp speeds beyond ambassador pace, let alone a vehicle that can do 0 to 100 in a few seconds. In a country where you can leave the 5 star hotel, walk 100m and be transported back 200 years in time-- it is all to much to soon, and just adds to the nightmare traffic problems, this post is discussing.

Let me ask you one simple question - who are the people who drive these vehicle ?

Its the same person who is walking on the road at some stage, crossing the road, and doing what everyone else does.

Its not the fault of vehicles, its the fault of human nature. We are tuned in a such a way that we not follow the system.

A person who do not follow the rules while driving, does not follow the rule while crossing the roads too. The average joe you see walking on the road, if he was in a car, he would be doing the same thing that other car owners are.