Wednesday, 08 June 2022 | Dr BKS Sanjay & Dr Gaurav Sanjay | Dehradun
Road traffic accidents have become an epidemic with the nation losing almost one and a half lakh people and 3-5 per cent of GDP. About 90 per cent of the accidents are due to drivers’ negligence.
Fatal road traffic accidents in India are a common scenario. The recent accidents in Uttarakhand at Uttarkashi, Tehri, Champawat and Chakrata are glaring examples of the negligence of drivers and impact of these accidents on the society and nation. Six accidents occurred on February 22, resulting in the deaths of 21 people in Uttarakhand. This exemplifies the tragic loss of human resource-s the greatest resource on earth.
A GMVN bus carrying 28 pilgrims from Madhya Pradesh fell into 200 metre deep gorge on the evening of June 6 while on the Char Dham Yatra. According to Uttarkashi district disaster management officer speaking to the media, the mishap occurred at 7:15 PM after the driver allegedly nodded off. The cause of sleep seems to be driver fatigue. It was said that this trip was his third trip without a rest.
The Champawat accident killed 14 people out of 16 who were returning from a marriage ceremony on the night of February 22. The pick-up vehicle which was supposed to carry 10 people was carrying 16 people. According to Newton’s third law, whenever objects A and B interact with each other, they exert forces upon each other. In other words for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. According to Newton’s another law of physics, force is directly proportional to the mass and the acceleration. Hence impact of large vehicle is always greater than that of a small vehicle and higher the speed greater the damage.
Another accident near Devprayag on May 8 resulted in tragic deaths of five members of a family in which the father, mother, son, daughter and niece died while returning from marriage shopping from Meerut to Vann village of Chamoli. The girl who was among the five dead was to get married four days later.
A patient admitted currently with us who is a truck driver ferries a truck between Rishikesh and Indore. The distance between Rishikesh and Indore is 1,046 kms. He told us that sometimes he drives almost 18 to 24 hours without any sleep, only having breaks for lunch and dinner. On April 18, he met with an accident in the early morning just before reaching Indore. One presumes that if he had taken proper rest and sleep then probably the accident could have been prevented.
A study conducted in 2020 by Save Life Foundation Mahindra revealed that truck drivers in India drive 12 hours a day covering around 417 kms with almost 50 per cent of them admitting that they feel sleepy or tired while driving. Clearly these drowsy drivers can cause fatal accidents on the road. Sleep deprived drivers are responsible for 40 per cent of road accidents according to a police report from Kerala. There should be an attempt to educate the drivers about the importance of sleep- seven to eight hours of sleep is necessary for good health.
A scientific study conducted in USA revealed that you are three times more likely to be in car crash if you are fatigued. Driving for more than 20 hours without sleep is equivalent to driving with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 per cent i.e. the US legal limit. However in India the permissible blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is 0.03 per cent. The unfortunate part is that a driver might not even know when he is fatigued because signs of fatigue are hard to identify. Some people may also experience narcolepsy – short, involuntary period of inattention. If a vehicle is moving at 60 kmph in five seconds the vehicle will travel almost 80 metres which is equal to the length of football field.
Here it should be mentioned that the practice of consuming alcohol to reduce body fatigue is a common practice in India. According to Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act the permissible limit of alcohol is 0.03 per cent i.e. 30 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood. It may be less risky to drink one peg of whisky, two glasses of wine or two cans of beer an hour before going on the wheel.
On May 17 an accident occurred in which one person died and four were injured while they were returning from Kedarnath. The alleged cause of the accident was that the driver dozed off on that ill-fated night. On April 19 three brothers out of four died in an accident on Saturday night- two on the spot and two en route to the hospital.
Incidence of drunken driving reported in media is just the tip of the iceberg. It is reported only when accidents happen and are known. A scientific study revealed that even with a small amount of alcohol consumption, drivers are twice likely to be involved in traffic accident than sober drivers. Many studies show that alcohol affects drivers’ reaction time, impairs their judgment and increases risk taking behaviour like over speeding and abrupt lane changing. An incident reported in the media revealed that a police checking team caught a bus driver who was drunk and was carrying 35 passengers on Char Dham Yatra. It is worth mentioning that a fatal accident is probably prevented by routine practices of police checking.
BAC machines or breathalysers estimate indirectly by measuring the amount of alcohol in one’s breath. Breath analyser usually costs about Rs 1,000. It is a simple, cheap and fast screening test of BAC. It is suggested that all vehicles should be checked at all check posts not only for DL, RC, PUC certificate and insurance etc but for indulgence of alcohol too. The police checking team should be equipped with breath analyser to determine the amount of blood in the system of persons suspected of being intoxicated presuming that every driver is vulnerable to alcohol intoxication. According to WHO report, five lakh accidents are happening in India and nearly 1.5 lakh people are being killed in these while according to a police report of Uttarakhand, in 2018 there were 1,468 accidents recorded which resulted in 1,047 deaths. In comparison to the national data where fatality is 30 per cent, in Uttarakhand it is more than double (71 per cent). It is attributed partially to the terrain. The accidents at night are usually fatal because of driver fatigue, lack of sleep and influence of alcohol. Driver fatigue is one of the top five causes of road traffic accidents. Driver fatigue is commonly referred when driver is tired, drowsy and sleepy. Driver fatigue can impair reaction time and decision making when behind the wheel.
It is advised that the drivers should avoid all-night driving. Accidents occur in a split second and a split-second narcolepsy can cause fatal accidents in general but particularly in hilly areas. We all should always keep in mind that prevention is better than cure.
(Padma Shri recipient Dr BKS Sanjay is a senior orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Gaurav Sanjay is an orthopaedic surgeon. Views expressed are personal)
