Safe Roads expo highlights child safety and vulnerable road users in India

Any medium that helps create awareness, disseminate information and further the cause of road safety in India – which saw 1,317 accidents and 413 deaths on its roads for each day in 2016 – is a laudable one. Which is why an exhibition like ‘Safe Roads’, the collaborative initiative between Mercedes-Benz Group companies (Mercedes-Benz India, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, Mercedes-Benz R&D India, Daimler Financial Services India) along with Autoliv, Bosch, Britax Romer and ZF, saw the presence today of Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources. 

Commending the luxury carmaker for the Safe Roads campaign as part of its CSR, Gadkari said that if the country is to achieve the target of 50 percent fatality reduction by 2020, the government needs the support of programs like Mercedes-Benz Safe Roads.   

Prof. Dr. Rodolfo Schoneburg, Diamler AG, Mercedes-Benz Cars Development Director (Safety/ Durability/ Corrosion Protection) lighting the lamp for the Safe Road Summit 2017. Also seen are Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, and  Manu Saale, MD and CEO, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India.

Gadkari said road accidents are caused by both by both human error and infrastructural factors like defective road design, inadequate signage and lack of underpasses, among other factors. The Road Transport Ministry is taking a multi-pronged approach to tackle this issue by addressing engineering and design issues, driver training and mass awareness.  

He stressed upon the need for scientific training of drivers, pointing out that the country has a shortage of 22 lakh drivers. The government has decided to set up 2,000 driver training centres to fill this gap, 100 have already been set up.  Most of these driver training centres will be set up in rural and tribal areas where they will also create employment opportunities for the local youth.

Spreading the message of road safety
Since 2015, Mercedes-Benz and its entities have organised multiple impactful and successful road safety awareness road shows in major cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Kochi, Hyderabad and Kolkata impacting more than 50,000 people through physical demonstrations, visual aids and research reports. 

As is known, safety is a core competency and a core value for Mercedes-Benz and its automotive brands. The carmaker is renowned worldwide for developing highly sophisticated safety systems. However, implementation of effective safety systems remains a challenge, as the road users often do not comply with traffic rules or do not use the safety systems onboard their vehicles.

On Indian roads, approximately 150,000 people die every year of road accidents, largely caused due to ignorance of safety norms and rules. Thus, the carmaker says, ‘Safe Roads’ was conceptualised to reduce this startling fatality rate on Indian roads by creating more awareness on road safety. The company believes such initiatives can begin an era of road safety awareness that supports a new culture of road safety for people in India. Over 70 percent of the fatalities can be reduced by 2025 through education and enforcement of safety rules and by creating awareness.

Every year, thousands of young children are killed or seriously injured in accidents in India. According to Ministry of Road Transport and Highway reports, around 27 children die on Indian roads every day. At the Summit, 300 school children and 200 college students from New Delhi attended the event. The college students were given a ‘First Responder Training’ by NGO partner, Indian Head Injury Foundation.   

According to Prof Dr Rodolfo Schöneburg, Mercedes-Benz Cars Development Director, Safety/Durability/Corrosion Protection, Daimler AG, “For Daimler, safety is a priority and core value. We constantly work and develop concepts to make our vehicles safer – not only for the drivers and their passengers, but also for vulnerable road users. We completed two impactful editions of ‘Safe Roads’ that touched thousands of lives in India. This year, we shifted our focus on child safety and vulnerable roads users in India. Children are our future and they deserve our full attention. With the initiative, we hope that parents understand how important it is to protect their children inside and outside of cars. We hope that ‘Safe Roads’ will continue to bring a massive and drastic change on road safety awareness and support a new culture of road safety among the people in India.”

Manu Saale, MD and CEO, MBRDI added, “With already a sustainable platform laid, the Safe Roads initiative is beginning to transform the outlook of road safety awareness keeping the Indian roads scenario. Children are the future, train them on road safety measures and it makes a great impact on their lives. Keeping the future in mind, these key measures complemented with the state-of-the-art safety technologies would be play a vital role in reducing causalities.” 

Commenting on the road safety expo, Roland Folger, MD and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India, said, “The ‘Safe Roads’ initiative that was flagged off two years ago has been phenomenal. We are proud of this nationwide initiative. Considering the rate of accidents on Indian roads has been alarming, it becomes our moral responsibility being both a premium automobile manufacturer and corporate citizen to do our bit to reduce this. There will never be a compromise on safety as Mercedes-Benz marque firmly believes in the principle of safety first.” 

Exhibits that make a difference
The ‘Safe Roads’ show disseminates the message of road safety through physical demonstration, visual aids and research reports. The physical demonstration is undertaken with the use of exhibits that have been imported from Germany providing a real-life experience of safety measures that can potentially save lives during road accidents. Here are some of them:

Belt-Slide: This exhibit enables people to experience the impact of seatbelts in a simulated crash environment at low speed. The aim is to increase the percentage of seatbelts usage for front row passengers including the driver. 

Child Safety Seat: It is one of the most important purchases a car buyer makes for his/her child on buying a vehicle. A child safety seat is designed specifically to protect children from injury or death during collisions. The exhibit shows how to correctly install child seats into a car and how to safely restrain the kids inside their seats. It informs that all children aged 12 and under should ride properly buckled in the back seat , that airbags can kill young children riding in the front seat, that a rear-facing car seat should never be placed in the front seat or in front of an airbag, and that appropriate child seats should be used based on child’s size and weight.

Crashed Mercedes-Benz C-Class: The passenger compartment of the C-Class remained stable in the frontal offset barrier test. The car scored maximum points for its protection of the front passenger dummy, with good protection of all critical body areas. Dummy readings indicated good protection of the knees and femurs of both the driver and passenger. 

Safety Demo Vehicle (new E-Class): An absolute highlight is the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan, which showcases a glimpse of future of safety. The E Class illustrates trailblazing innovations in the field of safety like PRESAFE. 

Alcohol goggles: Alcohol changes a person’s perception. These special goggles provide a unique experience. They simulate the common ‘walk-the-line’ activity which causes loss of balance and delayed reaction times. Visitors will feel their susceptibility to impairments and realize the potential severe consequences due to alcohol consumption. 

Safe Roads partner companies Autoliv, Bosch, Britax Romer and ZF have supported the initiative with in-depth research information and data on the existing scenario of road safety in India. These research reports also provide indicators of how the scenario can be improved through education and enforcement of traffic rules.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimation, India is ranked second in the world when it comes to the highest number of road traffic fatalities in 2015, and this made up about 11 percent of global road traffic fatalities. There has been some good work undertaken by the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) and WHO’s Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, where a declining road traffic fatality trend was observed in India for the first time, since 2012. However, road traffic injuries remain a concern as about half a million are reported each year. 

If 2011 is taken as base year, the fatality trend will reach about 250,000 by the year 2025 if business as usual continues with respect to road safety. However, 38 percent fatality reduction could be achieved with strong enforcement on drunk driving, overloading and load protruding and 80 percent fatality reduction could be achieved with strong enforcement on driver related factors – including over- speeding. By 2025, the projected number of fatalities could be reduced to about 50,000, following the above enforcements.

According to a sample study, in 50 percent of the accidents, there were no accident avoidance manoeuvres from the drivers. Only in 30 percent of the accidents, drivers performed a brake or swerve manoeuvre or a combination of both. Also, the percentage use of seatbelts by car drivers and front passengers is low (about 16%). There is a need to show case and make road users understand the impact; a typical seatbelt will have in a crash scenario.

Above: File photos of 'Safe Roads' exhibition held in India.