Sunday, 21 November 2021 | Dr BKS Sanjay & Dr Gaurav Sanjay
GUEST COLUMN
As every year, the objective of World Day of Remembrance (WDoR) for Road Traffic Victims is to provide a platform for road traffic victims and their families to remember all the people killed and seriously injured on the roads, acknowledge the crucial work of the emergency services team, draw attention to the generally trivial legal response to culpable road deaths and injuries, advocate better support for road traffic accident victims and their families, promote evidence-based actions to prevent and eventually stop further road traffic deaths and injuries.
WDoR 2021 marks the start of the new Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030, during which the WDoR will play a very important part – by highlighting the very reasons for all the necessary actions during this coming decade.WDoR 2021 puts the spotlight and emphasises on the reduction of vehicular and traffic speed. Low speeds have the potential to prevent many deaths and serious injuries, in particular among those like pedestrians and all other vulnerable road users – children, elderly and the disabled. The authors have taken a lifelong resolution to spread awareness for road safety through free health camp and free public awareness lectures.
A study conducted by us revealed that 90 per cent of the accidents are caused due to driver negligence. The main causes of road traffic accidents are over speeding, overtaking, overloading, drunken driving and recently using the mobile phone while driving. An important factor affecting the speed of the vehicle are driver related aspects like age, gender, alcohol intake, number of people in the vehicle and concomitant use of mobile phones etc. Most of the fatal accidents occur due to over speeding. Faster moving vehicles are more prone to accidents and the risk, and severity of accidents is directly proportional to the speed of the vehicles. Higher the speed, steeper the risk and greater the fatalities. It is observed that younger the driver, the faster the speed of the vehicle. Over speeding was a factor in 26 per cent of the all traffic fatalities in 2019, according to a police report. The incidence of fatalities also increases with simultaneous use of mobile phone and driving. A report cited 40 per cent fatality in such a circumstance.
In addition to that, accidents which occur during night time are also fatal because drivers are usually exhausted due to their hectic day work and even professional drivers are over worked especially in tourist season.It is a common practice in India for drivers to manage their fatigue by consuming alcohol and under its influence they seem to feel that they tend to reach to destination earlier. The reaction time to avoid an accident is usually a fraction of a second. This usually gets delayed after consuming alcohol. Though we may feel that all our senses are intact, that delay can’t usually be quantified after consuming alcohol. While travelling at night,the roads are relatively empty which tend to encourage over speeding.The food and lodging are usually expensive which forces many families and drivers to save money and to reach home at any cost. If any accidents happen at night, then usually they are unnoticed especially in the hilly and the remote areas.
Over speeding not only causes mortality but increase in the morbidity too. An increase in average speed of one kmph typically results in a three per cent higher risk of a crash involving injury, with a 4-5 per cent increase in the speed the crashes can result in fatalities. On other hand studies suggest that one kmph decrease in travelling speed would lead to 2-3 per cent reduction in road crashes. Over speeding is even more dangerous in hilly areas because the roads are narrow and have many hair pin bends due to geographical restrictions. There is a common observation that the accident happened because the driver could not control the vehicle. It may be the experience of all drivers, that if suddenly a T turn comes on straight road and the driver is over speeding then it becomes very difficult to turn suddenly.What usually follows is that the vehicle goes off road and there is vehicular dis-balance which often results in an accident. If the same situation is in the hilly areas which do not have metalled roads then vehicle often goes into the gorge. The use of convex mirror, speed camera and of speed limiting alarm devices are simple means to restrict over speeding.
Newton’s third law states that when one body exerts a force on another body the second body exerts an equal force. This principle of action and reaction explains why a force tends to deform a body. This deformation of a body usually appears in road traffic accidents with fractured bones or injury to other vital internal organs of the body. High speed of the vehicle reduces the possibility to respond in time when necessary. The brain needs time to process information, to decide whether or not to react and finally to execute an appropriate reaction.The breaking distance is proportional to the square of speed (v2). Therefore, the possibility to avoid a collision becomes a smaller as the speed increases. A one kmph increase in speed causes three per cent increase in chances of an accident but in practice the relationship is more complex. The exact relationship depends upon many other things on the level of speed and quality of road, type of traffic, area of driving etc.
A principle of physics states that force is directly proportional to the mass. Over loading is another important cause of accidents especially in heavy vehicles like trucks and buses. We usually see many media reports of accidents caused due to over loading. The reason of fatalities is that drivers of such vehicles are not able to respond to emergency condition and unable to control the over loaded vehicle. An over loaded vehicle takes longer to stop and in an emergency situation the driver may misjudge the situation. The over loaded vehicle shift their load particularly during the acute turns on the roads and also on the highway where they are at a fast speed.
Because of this aggressive behaviour and none obeying of the traffic rules, the nation is losing a lot in terms of human and economic resource. If we follow traffic rules than we will not only save the life of these people but save a significant amount of the money which is being spent on the treatment of injuries sustained in these accidents and can also be used to fulfil their other important needs. All of us should spread awareness to prevent these accidents because they have taken a form of an epidemic. The public should learn the traffic rules and follow them; the government should teach the traffic rules and should strictly enforce them to prevent these road traffic tragedies.
(Padma Shri recipient Dr BKS Sanjay is a senior orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Gaurav Sanjay is an orthopaedic surgeon. Views expressed are personal)
