New Delhi: International Road Federation (IRF, a Geneva based global body working worldwide for safer roads has expressed deep concern at the sad demise of an eminent businessman Cyrus Mistry in a road crash near Mumbai .
“India accounts for more than 11 % of the road accidents deaths world wide with 426 lives lost every day and 18 every hour .Over 1.6 lakh lives were lost in the year 2021 and most of the road accident deaths are avoidable .We condole the untimely demise of Cyrus Mistry. But we would also like to draw Union and state government’s attention towards increasing number of fatal road accidents in the country ..” said Mr K.K.Kapila, President emeritus, , International Road Federation (IRF)
“We urge the union government and the various state governments to fix killer accident prone black spots in various parts of the country . These black spots, which are accident sites, where accidents occur again and again can be rectified with engineering l” said Mr Kapila.
“We urge the union and the state government to make every possible effort to change the road safety culture while establishing clear road safety norms. Global agencies involved in road safety have blamed lack of policies and enforcement as the main reasons behind increasing road fatalities in the country.” Said Mr Satish Parakh, President, International Road Federation (IRF) India Chapter ..
India is a signatory to the United Nation’s Decade of Action plan for Road Safety across the world which aims to reduce road fatalities by 50% by the year 2030.
“Apart from road engineering ITF also expresses concern at vehicle safety despite being an expensive SUV it failed to save the pessenger’s in the vehicle . With global road safety stress in Five E’s including education, road engineering , vehicle engineering , enforcement and emergency care “ said Mr Parakh
Several measures towards improving road safety including improvements in roads from engineering perspective, road safety audits in all stages of road construction, beginning right from the planning stage, besides identification and remedy of black spots which account for almost 90% of road fatalities in India will help reduce fatal road accidents” added Mr parakh.