India needs customised solutions for implementing  road and vehicular  safety measures based on reliable data on road accidents instead of cut-and-paste solutions being implemented from developed countries. This is, more or less, the gist of what RC Bhargava, non-executive chairman of Maruti Suzuki India, said at the World Road Meeting organised by International Road Federation (IRF) in New Delhi today.

“The pattern of road use is different in the Western countries as compared to India; the data at present being used to implement road safety measures, particularly for vehicular safety, is not reliable. The government needs to find actual causes of road deaths,” Bhargava added.

“As per the data of the Ministry of  Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH ), about 72 percent vehicles in the country are two-wheelers and 24 percent four-wheelers. About 35 percent of total road deaths in the country are of two-wheeler riders, 18 percent of four-wheeler owners, 11 percent of truck users and 10 percent pedestrians. The government needs to focus more on venerable users .The government figures of 84 percent deaths caused due to driver fault needs to be further researched,” said Bhargava.

“Some of the solutions needed are educating and enforcing wearing of a helmet for two-wheeler riders. The government should encourage two-wheeler users to shift to four-wheel vehicles for safety. Apart from this, driver license issuing should be made more stringent with automation and use of modern technology,” added Bhargava.

“Maruti Suzuki, as part of an endeavour to increase awareness about road safety, will soon be signing an MoU with the Delhi government to provide technology solutions for road safety and enforcement of law in the capital. This will include providing high definition cameras to assess real-time traffic volume, traffic monitoring ,detecting traffic violations and automatic challaning to promote traffic discipline,” he said.

Over 1,000 global road safety experts, professionals, companies and government organisations, active in the road transport and mobility  sectors from various parts of the world are taking part in the four-day 18th World Road Meeting (WRM), being organised by the Geneva-based International Road Federation (IRF).

Also read: 1,317 accidents and 413 deaths on Indian roads each day in 2016