Jisha Surya
First Published : 16 Nov 2010
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘’Hundreds of fatalities and thousands of serious injuries on the Kerala roads could have been saved if the recommended road safety actions had been implemented earlier. Who should be accountable for the loss of these lives and the seriously injured persons?” asks Stein Lundebye, World Bank road safety consultant, who had the responsibility of suggesting road safety standards of KSTP roads.
Lundebye, who visited the State several times to review the progress of implementation, said the State Government had failed to implement the proposals. ‘’There have been agreements on many traffic and safety issues. However, there has been a lack of implementation of proposed actions. The road safety action plan was completed 4-5 years ago and many very sensible professional recommendations were made. Once a year, I make a visit to Kerala to see what progress the government has made with the implementation of proposed recommendations. Every time, I prepare a list of proposed actions, which often do not get implemented,’’ Lundebye, who is currently in Norway, said in an e-mail interview.
According to Lundebye, change of officials (read the frequent change of PWD Ministers) has seriously affected the implementation of the proposal. ‘’I would like to say that I believe many road accidents could have been avoided if the government had taken appropriate actions over the last 4-5 years since the Kerala Road Safety Action Plan recommendations were made,’’ he said.
Main suggestion of the World Bank is to improve the North-South and West-East strategic roads. The National Highways in Kerala (around 1,500 km) represent about 1.2 percent of the total road network in the State and these highways account for around 20 percent of the road travel and about 38 percent of the road fatalities. Hence, there would be big gains by improving the safety on these highways, he said.
Lundebye believes alcohol and drugs are the reasons behind 20-30 percent of the accidents, though the State road accident statistics do not show so.
He said since Kerala has the highest alcohol consumption per capita in India, it would be the major reason for road accidents. ‘’The traffic law enforcement by the police must also be improved drastically to check speeding and drunk-driving. Use of seatbelts (in front and rear seats) must also improve. Safety belts are some of the cheapest and most effective safety measures. Traffic signing and road marking by PWD should improve. Proper bus laybys and ‘school safety zones’ should be established along the main highways,’’ he said.
Worrying trends
■ Kerala’s fatality rate in 2003 was five times more than that of many countries with mature road networks.
■ Over half of Kerala’s fatal crashes occur on the National Highways and in the three major cities: Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi/Ernakulam and Kozhikode
■ Existing data makes it difficult to identify road user types being killed and injured on Kerala’s roads. Some estimates put pedestrian fatalities at more than 50 percent of the total.
■ High population density, traffic congestion and roadside friction results in increased crash risk, especially for pedestrians.
■ Buses appear to be involved in an inordinately large proportion of fatal crashes.
First Published : 16 Nov 2010
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ‘’Hundreds of fatalities and thousands of serious injuries on the Kerala roads could have been saved if the recommended road safety actions had been implemented earlier. Who should be accountable for the loss of these lives and the seriously injured persons?” asks Stein Lundebye, World Bank road safety consultant, who had the responsibility of suggesting road safety standards of KSTP roads.
Lundebye, who visited the State several times to review the progress of implementation, said the State Government had failed to implement the proposals. ‘’There have been agreements on many traffic and safety issues. However, there has been a lack of implementation of proposed actions. The road safety action plan was completed 4-5 years ago and many very sensible professional recommendations were made. Once a year, I make a visit to Kerala to see what progress the government has made with the implementation of proposed recommendations. Every time, I prepare a list of proposed actions, which often do not get implemented,’’ Lundebye, who is currently in Norway, said in an e-mail interview.
According to Lundebye, change of officials (read the frequent change of PWD Ministers) has seriously affected the implementation of the proposal. ‘’I would like to say that I believe many road accidents could have been avoided if the government had taken appropriate actions over the last 4-5 years since the Kerala Road Safety Action Plan recommendations were made,’’ he said.
Main suggestion of the World Bank is to improve the North-South and West-East strategic roads. The National Highways in Kerala (around 1,500 km) represent about 1.2 percent of the total road network in the State and these highways account for around 20 percent of the road travel and about 38 percent of the road fatalities. Hence, there would be big gains by improving the safety on these highways, he said.
Lundebye believes alcohol and drugs are the reasons behind 20-30 percent of the accidents, though the State road accident statistics do not show so.
He said since Kerala has the highest alcohol consumption per capita in India, it would be the major reason for road accidents. ‘’The traffic law enforcement by the police must also be improved drastically to check speeding and drunk-driving. Use of seatbelts (in front and rear seats) must also improve. Safety belts are some of the cheapest and most effective safety measures. Traffic signing and road marking by PWD should improve. Proper bus laybys and ‘school safety zones’ should be established along the main highways,’’ he said.
Worrying trends
■ Kerala’s fatality rate in 2003 was five times more than that of many countries with mature road networks.
■ Over half of Kerala’s fatal crashes occur on the National Highways and in the three major cities: Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi/Ernakulam and Kozhikode
■ Existing data makes it difficult to identify road user types being killed and injured on Kerala’s roads. Some estimates put pedestrian fatalities at more than 50 percent of the total.
■ High population density, traffic congestion and roadside friction results in increased crash risk, especially for pedestrians.
■ Buses appear to be involved in an inordinately large proportion of fatal crashes.
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