Road Traffic Accidents in India

Abstract

Road traffic accidents (RTAs) result in tremendous loss of lives and prolonged morbidity besides causing sufferings to relatives and friends. Loss of lives and useful working hours inflict heavy damage to a nation's economic activity, loss of breadwinner to family, and deprivation of family bond of love and security. Increasing traffic accidents and subsequent trauma creates heavy burden on our scarce funds and already overburdened hospitals. Road traffic accidents are one of the major causes of death and illness which is preventable. There is tremendous rise in RTAs due to increase in vehicular volume on our roads, incredible speeding of the vehicles, poor driving skills, drunk driving, bad roads, poor traffic control, and lack of public awareness, rampant indiscipline, incompetent authorities and lack of implementation of existing laws to tackle the menace of disrespect to law and rules. The solution to the problem lies in reducing the volume of traffic on roads by instituting efficient public transport system all over, like the one prevalent in advanced nations of the world, honest road engineering, universal education and training of all citizens in driving, creating awareness about road safety precautions, enforcing strict punishments upon offenders indulging in drunk driving and crossing the speed limits, and regulating control of traffic on highways and accident-prone areas.