“Automakers in India ignoring safety standards”

Indian automakers in a bid to meet higher mileage are compromising on safety standards. This was stated by Vijay Chibber, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) at a day-long seminar recently on Role of Corporates in Road Safety.

The seminar was organised by the   International Road Federation (IRF), a Geneva based global body working for safer roads world-wide. He said the “Recent move by MoRTH and Ministry of Industry to introduce ABS brakes in two wheelers was shunned by the two wheeler manufacturers asking for couple of more years to introduce it”. He also pointed out that recently most of the entry level cars in India had failed the crash test. He was referring the NCAP

Chibber noted that world-wide safety care of the rear seat passenger is taken by the car manufacturers and most of the cars do not start till the passengers in the rear seat wear the seat belt. “Here even making helmet mandatory for pillion and women riders has become difficult “ he added.

“To ensure vehicle safety a car crash test facility will come up by end of current financial year. The NCERT will also add Road safety in school curriculum in the next acadenmic session” Chibber said.

India has the highest incident of fatal road accidents in the world and accounts for 10pc of the total  1.3 million road accident fatalities worldwide despite having only one per cent of the world's vehicle population.  About 1.38 lakh people were killed in around 4.9 lakh road accidents in the year 2012. “The estimates of the Planning Commission and the World Bank have put social cost of accidents between 2 to 3 per cent of the GDP every year. The nation is losing more than Rs. 1 lakh crore a year because of road accidents, and this is besides the loss of human life and trauma,” said Chibber