Supreme Court passes 25 directions for ensuring Road Safety in India [Read judgment]

The Supreme Court has passed a slew of directions while hearing a PIL on road safety in India. The Court has directed the Union Territories and States, which have not formed road safety policies to formulate the same by January 2018..A two-judge Bench of Justices Madan Lokur and Deepak Gupta passed the order in a petition filed by S Rajaseekaran, an orthopedic surgeon from Coimbatore. The petitioner had contended that 90% of deaths in road accidents are due to lack of proper implementation of safety rules..An analysis of the report by the Ministry of road transport and Highways published on September 2017 titled “Road Accidents in India-2016” shows that a total number of 4,80,652 road accidents took place in the country in the year 2016 of which 1,50,785 accidents claimed life and 4,94,624 accidents left persons with grievous injuries..The report shows that the ratio of road accidents in India has decreased by 4.1% but the fatalities in the accidents have risen by 3.2 %. According to the report, 13 States in India have the highest accountability (86%) for road accidents and deaths (84%) .The National Highways and the State Highways account for 29.6% and 25.3% of the road accidents while 37% of the accidents are caused on the traffic junctions. According to the report, the number of deaths caused on the National Highways and State Highways are 34.5% and 27.9% respectively..The report also records that in most cases the drivers’ fault is the primordial factor responsible for causing deaths, accidents and injuries..The Supreme Court also agrees to the statistics, which can be noted in the observation which reads as-.“the number of deaths due to road accidents in the country was said tobe over 100,000 in a year, which translates to about one death every three minutes.”.During the course of arguments in the instant case, the Court has perused all documents, data and reports on road safety and accidents and deaths, which have occurred over the years. The petitioner has also relied on the data published by the Ministry of road transport and Highways for the year 2010..The Court after having considered all aspects in the case and after making detailed study of the suggestions and submissions issued 25 directions, which include directions to 4 Union territories and 3 States to formulate “Road Safety Policy” by January 2018 and carry out its implementation in an effective manner. It has also directed all States and Union Territories to prepare a “Road Safety Action Plan” by the end of March 2018..Further directions of the Court impresses upon setting up of a District road committee to review and take coercive steps on road safety issues, to improve the road conditions, carrying road safety audits, setting up of emergency medical units in each district and to ensure that proper safety measures such as air bags and abs in vehicles including two wheelers..The matter has now been kept for further hearing on February 7, 2018.