This happened during the last rainy season. Following heavy downpour, the inner boundary wall at a housing society was half soaked and water was found seeping from the adjoining vacant site. The maintenance manager engaged a tractor to fill up some soil on the outer boundary wall so as to arrest the inflow of water into the society. Filling 3-4 loads of soil, the driver collected his money and left. Hours later, the society’s boundary wall collapsed. Promptly the manager raised a police complaint. The tractor was seized and the driver arrested.

The offence? Rash and negligent driving.

Well, to cut the story short, the President of the housing society’s Resident Welfare Association intervened. The police complaint was withdrawn -- both the tractor and the driver were released.

What is “rash and negligent driving”? According to the law, it is driving any vehicle, or riding, on any public way in a manner so rash or negligent as to endanger human life, or to be likely to cause hurt or injury to any other person.  

This July 11, television visuals showed how a speeding bus being driven in the wrong direction on the Delhi Meerut Expressway (DME) in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) collided with a Mahindra Tough Utility Vehicle (TUV) killing a family of six including 2 children on the spot. The impact of the collision was such that the front of the TUV was completely crushed. 

The killer bus reportedly entered the DME from a point where vehicles are supposed to exit the expressway and travelled on the wrong side for nearly 8 km before crashing into the ill-fated TUV. The driver of the bus as well as the owner have since been arrested and ongoing investigations are expected to provide further details.

The 96-km long Delhi-Meerut Expressway, operational for the last two years, drastically saves the travel time between both the cities. But the cause for concern is that the road users seem to violate safety protocols with impunity. According to a Times of India report, between January and May this year, 13,975 cases of wrong side driving and 24,608 cases of speeding had been caught and fined. There were 37 accidents on the DME till June 30 this year, where 28 people lost their lives and another 27 injured in these crashes.

Take for instance the 165.5-km long stretch six-lane Yamuna Expressway where 1,242 people have died and 10.520 injured in 7,256 accidents between January 2012 and March 2023.  Notably, 488 people were killed and 3,873 injured in 3,207 accidents which occurred when drivers "dozed off". 1,164 accidents resulting in 263 deaths and 2,373 injuries were attributed to "negligent driving/others". 

Over-speeding led to 1,302 accidents leaving 197 dead and 1,816 injured. While 90 people lost their lives in 760 accidents caused by "tyre bursts", drunken driving caused 263 accidents with 87 deaths. Dense fog caused another 341 accidents and 76 deaths while pedestrians on the e-way caused 86 accidents and 24 deaths.

The 118-km Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway (aimed at reducing the travel time between the two cities from approximately three hours to about 75 minutes) has been in the news for the wrong reasons. Ever since this stretch was thrown open to the public this March, 136 people have died and over 335 have been injured in some 296 accidents on this expressway between January and June this year.

On July 1, a sleeper coach bus collided with a divider on the Mumbai-Nagpur Samruddhi Mahamarg (expressway) in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district. The Phase-I of the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Mahamarg claimed to be the longest expressway in the country was made operational in December last year. Media reports indicate that between December 2022 and April 2023, this expressway witnessed 358 accidents in which 63 persons lost their lives. Preliminary investigations in the recent incident suggest a tyre burst or driver negligence caused the accident and the impact was considerable that it caused the bus to catch fire, resulting in the tragic loss of 25 people. Eight persons, including the driver and the driver's assistant, managed to survive. The findings of a police forensic report reportedly revealed that the bus driver was under the influence of alcohol.

Even as India amounts to only one percent of the vehicles across the world, it is worrisome that we contribute almost 6 percent of the road fatalities and between 3 and 5 percent of our gross domestic product every year. In 70 percent of the road accidents, our productive population (18-45 years) get adversely affected. 

Do road accidents in India kill more people than some epidemics? According to official statistics, there were 4,12,432 accidents reported across the country in 2021 in which 1,52,972 victims lost their lives leaving 3,84,448 injured. Going into the type of road accidents, 34.47 percent of them were fatal, 30.65 percent ended in grievous injury; 29.01 percent resulted in minor injury while 5.88 percent escaped without any injuries. 

“Hit from back” accounted for the largest share (21.2 percent) in total road accidents in the country followed by “head on collisions” (18.5 percent) and hit-and-run (18.6 percent) typically occurring between two moving vehicles. Notably, there were 57,415 “hit and run” road accidents in which 25,938 persons were killed and 45,355 injured against 52,448 accidents that killed 23,159 persons and injured 45,355 people in 2020. 16,397 persons were killed in road accidents in 2021 due to not wearing seat belts, of which 8,438 were drivers and the remaining 7,959 were passengers. Similarly, 46,593 persons were killed in road accidents due to not wearing helmet, of which 32,877 were drivers and 13,716 were passengers. 

8.2 percent of total accidents and 9.35 percent of fatalities on national highways recorded in 2021 were due to drunken driving or driving on wrong side, jumping red light and use of mobile phone. 67.5 percent of accidents occurred on straight roads, 13.9 percent on curved roads, pothole roads and steep grade and 2.2 percent where construction work was in progress. 

Researchers in the US found that there are three ways people become distracted while driving – 1) taking their eyes off the road, 2) taking their hands off the wheel, or 3) taking their mind off of driving by thinking about something else. Most drivers conversing on a cell phone while driving compensated for their distraction by reducing their speed and leaving more space for vehicles in front of them. It was also found that dialling a phone led to greater reductions in performance compared to simply talking which was much more dangerous. 

Even though wearing seat-belts reduces the risk of death or serious injury by roughly 50 percent, 1 in 7 people still do not wear it when driving. The major causes of death resulting from auto accidents involve behaviours that are preventable: alcohol, reckless driving, and speeding.

Recurring road accidents clearly highlights the multi-dimensional challenges of road safety. Even though highways are designed for the highest speed of 120 kmph, instances galore when it has been found that many vehicles often exceed 140 kmph. 

Especially, when small cars and badly maintained vehicles overspeed they not only put these vehicles but their occupants as well at greater risk.

Then there are several accident-prone spots in the country which needs to be addressed in the right earnest.  

At a macro level, zero tolerance towards road indiscipline merits serious consideration. Those who brazenly flout the rules of the road ought to be swiftly booked and their licences cancelled. 

For instance, the menace of drunken driving which can have disastrous consequences is being viewed seriously in Mumbai and those booked for it could lose their licences.  Similarly in Chennai, the licences of first-time offenders, who earlier used to be let off with a warning or their licenses suspended for six months, are now liable to be cancelled. In Hyderabad, those caught for drunken driving would forfeit their driving licenses on the spot.  

Apart from better enforcement of rules and regulations, whenever an accident takes place, there is an imperative need to swiftly arrange for emergency care to minimise the loss of life.

With several studies showing that distraction and fatigue are some of the most prominent driver characteristics responsible for several road crashes, at an individual level, driving cautiously and being alert all the time while on the road would go a long way in preventing accidents.