More than half of the young population which die every year on Indian roads is between 18 to 30 years. The country loses this young and productive-age population only due to non-compliance of basic road safety protocols like helmet, seat belts and high speed etc.  According to Ministry of road transport and highways 55% of the population aged 18 yrs to 30 years lose their lives to road accidents. These precious lives could been saved by following simple road safety protocols.

Lancet’s latest report analyzes the different ways in which the death toll caused by road accidents can be reduced and one of them being wearing helmets. The report says that 1·35 million deaths, and 50 million injuries and disabilities are caused due to road accidents,and these can be drastically reduced by following some basic road safety rules.

The United Nations had integrated Road safety in the Sustainable development goals in September 2015. Road safety has been included in  the two of the 17 development goals, one being SDG 3 and the second being SDG 11. In SDG 3 the goal is to ‘halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents’ by 2020. In SDG 11 the goal is to providing access to sustainable transport and improving road safety in general but especially for vulnerable road users.

There are four rules which in obeying can be the key in achieving the SDG goals set by the United Nations:

Intervention in the speed of vehicles.

 WHO reports suggest that exceeding speed limits are one of the leading causes of road deaths and injuries. Constantly checking the speed of vehicles and finding vehicles at every traffic corner could keep in check of any violators. According to the Lancet report this method could save about 347,258 lives globally.

Intervention in Drinking and Driving

In India around 14,071 number of accidents out of 4,64,910 takes place due to drinking and driving. By avoiding drinking and driving at least 16304 could be saved.

Implementation of seat belt protocol

Seat belts are considered as one of the most important mandates for vehicles. Air bags and seat belts are complimentary to each other for enhanced safety. Absence of either of the one can put the driver in vulnerable state. In a report by the Ministry of road transport and highways (2019) Non-wearing of seat belts was found to be associated with 20,885 deaths which makes up for 13.82 per cent of total road accident deaths in the country during 2019 which involved 9,562 drivers and 11,323 passengers.

Implementation of Helmet protocol

 According to a report conducted by the Ministry of road transport and highways, the number of deaths caused by the non wearing of helmets were recorded to be 44,666. This makes up 29.82 percent of total road accident deaths in the country during 2019. Furthermore the number of drivers killed were 30,148 and the passengers killed were 14,518. These lives could have been saved had they complied to the mandatory rule of wearing helmets.

This data collection calls for an immediate effect of the inspection of daily commuters through vehicles to ensure the safety of the lives which are taken away in seconds due to road accidents