As the world celebrates UN Global Road Safety Week 2015 with the theme "Save Kids Lives", children on Indian roads continue to face a grim scenario. In Delhi, for instance, the number of children killed in road accidents has gone up from 145 in 2013 to 167 in 2014. The number of injuries have gone up from 855 to 918 in the same period.
This was revealed by RTI data collected by SaveLIFE Foundation, a road safety advocacy group. Delhi is not the only State to have reported an increase in child mortality on roads. Chhattisgarh has reported a 55% jump in deaths of children in road accidents with 211 deaths recorded in 2014 as against 136 in 2013. State of Maharashtra has reported a 23.5% increase with 434 children killed in road accidents in 2014 as against 351 in 2013.
States of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, though, have reported a slight drop in the number of child fatalities on roads. In 2013, Tamil Nadu had recorded 380 deaths and in 2014 the number fell to 351. In U.P. the number of children killed in road accidents has fallen from 825 to 638 in the corresponding period. Union Territory of Chandigarh has also recorded a reduction in road accident deaths of children in the years 2013 and 2014 with the number of deaths falling from 8 to 5 and the number of injuries falling from 17 to 7. The States of Punjab and Haryana, of which Chandigarh is the Capital, have not responded to the RTI query. States of Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh too have failed to respond to the RTI query.
“Every day 20 children under the age of 14 are killed in road accidents in India. Unless we legislate and enforce strict safety measures to protect them, including child restraint systems, child helmets, adult accountability and child zones, the situation is not expected to improve. The government must move on the proposal to strengthen road safety laws”, noted Piyush Tewari, Founder & CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation, which filed the RTI applications. Questioning policymakers, Dr. Shubhangi Tambwekar who lost her daughter to a road accident last year says, “How many young lives is India prepared to sacrifice? To you, she is just a statistic. For us, we have lost our soul”.
About SaveLIFE Foundation
SaveLIFE Foundation is an advocacy group, which aims to reduce the high number of road accident deaths in India through rapid emergency care for injured victims. It is also working to create a supportive legal framework for bystanders to help victims of accidents and other trauma. It filed two Public Interest Litigations in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in order to address gaps in the current scenario dealing with road safety. The first PIL, Writ Petition (C) 235 of 2012, asks for a supportive legal framework for Good Samaritans or Passers-by, who are the ones in a position to provide immediate help to an injured victim on the road, to come forward and do so without any hesitation or fear of Police or prolonged legal formalities. The second PIL, Writ Petition (C) 427 of 2013, deals with the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988; specifically, Rule 93(8) under the Central Motor Vehicles Rules which allow for protruding rods at the back of trucks. This PIL also highlights the inadequacy of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 as the principal Road Safety statue in India. Please log in to http://savelifefoundation.org/
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