Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari stressed that there is utmost need to change the behaviour of the common people to enhance road safety and urged corporates and organisations to take on initiatives in this regard.

Gadkari was speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Conclave on ‘Road Safety – Indian Roads@2030 – Raising the Bar of Safety’ at New Delhi on Tuesday. He emphasised on regular eye check-ups for drivers and asked the stakeholders to organise free camps for the same as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The Union Minister also said that road safety education and awareness in schools and colleges will be more effective as the youth are more easily influenced compared to adults. He maintained that collaboration with NGOs, start-ups, technology providers, educational institutions, Traffic & Highway Authorities is the way forward for spreading good practices for road safety.

Gadkari highlighted that in India every hour there are 53 road accidents and 19 deaths, 60% of deaths being young people in the age group of 18 to 35 years. He said that as per the latest Report on Road Accidents 2022, there have been 4.6 lakh road accidents, 1.68 lakh deaths and 4 lakh serious injuries. The Union Minister further informed that there has been increase in road accidents by 12 per cent, increase in road accidents deaths by 10 per cent resulting in socio-economic loss of 3.14 per cent to GDP as accident death is loss of bread-earner in a family, professional loss to employer and overall loss to the economy.

The minister also stated that the Government of India’s target is to reduce accident deaths by 50 per cent by 2030 and appealed for cooperation from all stakeholders in strengthening the ‘4Es of Road Safety’ – Engineering (Road & Vehicle Engineering) – Enforcement – Education and Emergency Medical Service.