The monsoons have posed a huge challenge for road safety in Maharashtra, especially in Mumbai.
Monsoons in Mumbai are prone to road accidents for multiple reasons: poor road sign visibility, waterlogging, dug-up roads, and potholes. In 2019, around 2140 people lost lives in road crashes due to potholes in India, as per the MoRTH report.
An award-winning organization, SaveLIFE foundation, is committed to improving road safety and providing emergency medical care.
In an exclusive interview, Piyush Tewari, Founder and CEO at SaveLIFE foundation, shares detailed information, data and facts on the potholes and road accidents issues faced by Mumbaikars. He also advised various safety measures for citizens to avoid risk.
Any major road accidents or casualties reported this year so far during monsoon in Mumbai?
According to data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, in 2019, 400 deaths took place in over 1,100 (1,186) crashes in Maharashtra during rains. With the excessive flooding and the hindrance to visibility, the rains pose a severe risk to the safety of commuters on Mumbai’s roads. However, this year, the monsoons have been heavier than usual, with the effects of climate change, as well as Cyclone Tauktae hitting Mumbai in May. According to reported data from the Maharashtra Traffic Police, road crashes in Mumbai have increased by 15% between 2020 and 2021 (comparing data from January- June).
Do you think the situation has improved in the city in the past 1-2 years?
According to data from official sources, there has been an improvement in the road safety situation, as crashes and fatalities have dipped from 2018-2020:
● According to data from MORTH, the status of road safety in Mumbai has improved between 2018 and 2019. The road crashes in the city reduced from 3162 in 2018 to 2,872 in 2019. Further, road crash deaths in the city have reduced from 475 in 2018 to 447 in 2019. Its rank in the list of highest road crash deaths among 50 million plus cities dropped from 9 in 2018 to 11 in 2019.
● Further, data from Mumbai Police shows that fatalities have further dipped in 2020 (data available till August 2020). The city observed 172 road traffic deaths from January to August 2020, representing a significant decrease compared to previous years. Between these months in 2019, 300 deaths were reported in 281 fatal crashes. The year prior in 2018, 314 deaths were reported in 300 fatal crashes.
During the peak of the second wave in April and May, many officials were on COVID-19 duty, therefore, the entire process of repair and maintenance of road works went for a toss, said a BMC official. What is your take on it?
The COVID-19 lockdown in Maharashtra between April and June served as an opportunity for authorities to fix road infrastructure errors. Due to the reduction in traffic flow, rectification of infrastructural errors could have taken place in a systematic manner. However, the catastrophic impact of the Delta Variant of the Coronavirus was unforeseen and had strained the capacity of all institutions. That being said, it is not too late for BMC officials to take initiative to rectify infrastructural issues in the city. As the risk of the third wave still remains, schools as well as many offices in Mumbai remain shut. Hence, the BMC should seize the opportunity to kickstart the repair and maintenance of road works.
Can you elaborate a few landmark projects that your organisation has/had taken up for improving road safety?
● The Zero Fatality Corridor Initiative (ZFC) is SLF’s pioneering attempt to build a replicable model for road safety that can be implemented on any road. The aim of the initiative is to reduce the number of road crash fatalities on the most dangerous roads to a near zero number. SLF currently has 8 ZFC projects in India, covering over 1,900 km of road. Four of these projects (Mumbai-Pune Expressway (MPEW), NH-48, Mumbai- Nagpur Expressway, and Pune-Satara-Kagal NH-48) are in Maharashtra. Since each project’s inception, the MPEW (project started in 2016) and NH-48 (project started in 2017) have witnessed a 52% and 54% decline in road crash fatalities respectively (Till 2020).
● The Vision Zero project involves a technique called Tactical Urbanism (TU). Tactical Urbanism is an on-ground test of urban infrastructure, street design and other public amenities which improve road safety and walkability. TU is an internationally proven technique that helps test out soft interventions (using barricades, paints, and cones). SLF conducted its first TU project in Bhalswa Chowk, Delhi. The project was a success, with the chowk witnessing zero deaths and serious injuries during the trial period. Now, similar trials will be conducted on two high conflict and high fatality junctions: Karla Phata and Kanhe Phata on the NH-48, Maharashtra.
● SLF secured India’s first Good Samaritan Law to protect bystanders when helping road crash victims.
According to you, is the civic body or government only responsible for road accidents due to potholes? Why?
Road defects like potholes can be interlinked to neglect on part of authorities and road contractors. Such neglect imperils the lives of all road users by exposing them to grievous bodily harm. The Supreme Court of India, taking cognizance of the high number of fatalities due to the potholes on Indian roads, gave directions in the case of S. in the case S. Rajaseekaran vs. Union of India & Ors dated July 20, 2018, to the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety to submit a report on issues concerning Potholes along with measures to determine the quantum of compensation in cases of crashes arising due to them.
Further, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, inserted a new section providing stringent punishment for faulty road design, construction, and maintenance. As per Section 198 A, contractors, consultants, or concessionaires are now held accountable for faulty road design, construction, and maintenance. Under this new Section, a fine of up to INR 1 lakh is imposed upon a defaulting road authority/contractor/ consultant/ concessionaires if a road crash death or injury occurs due to a road defect or engineering default on a road under the responsibility of the aforementioned authority. The insertion of this section to penalize contractors for faulty road design and engineering ensures an accountability framework besides improving the quality of the roads.
Despite various maintenance work on the roads around monsoon, why Mumbai has still not managed to overcome this issue?
The issue of potholes and other such infrastructural errors still existing despite various maintenance works could be attributed to the following:
● As the most densely populated city in India, Mumbai also faces large traffic volumes every day. The design of the city roads is inadequate to withstand the growth in traffic volume. As the roads are overloaded beyond design capacity, frequent wear and tear occurs.
● A lot of Mumbai’s roads are designed for moving traffic. Thus, where there is “stop and go traffic”, the road infrastructure faces additional strain leading to issues such as potholes.
● Once the maintenance work is completed, a small period of time is required for the repairs to set in, and vehicles should not be allowed to ply on the roads before that. However, due to the demands of the city, vehicles ply on roads that have just been repaired, hence leaving no time for the repair work to set in.
● During the monsoons, there is the issue of water seepage in the roads. When there are gaps in the soil of the roads, the water seeps in and makes these gaps bigger, which eventually form potholes. Thus, the pavement of the road should be constructed in such a manner that the soil avoids water seepage.
In addition to this, there is the issue of irregular maintenance work. Maintenance work should not be a one-time event, and needs to take place periodically, at least once every quarter. Road safety audits, which are a formal and regular procedure for assessing road safety performance, should be conducted on a regular basis. For example, SLF conducts shorter Summary Audits as part of its ZFC initiative, which identify known infrastructural errors that have caused road crashes in the past and suggest methods to rectify them.
What safety measures you’d like to advice for citizens to avoid risk?
● In order to avoid risk of road traffic injury, usage of safety devices such as helmets (for both the driver and the pillion) and seatbelts (for driver and all passengers) is imperative. Non- motorised transport users should wear/ use retro-reflective material to increase their visibility, especially in harsh weather conditions (eg. rains).
● All road users need to avoid dangerous behaviour such as driving at excessive speed, wrong side driving, jumping redlights, driving using handheld devices, driving under influence of alcohol/drugs, etc. to ensure their own and others’ safety.
● In case a road crash occurs, bystanders should help the victims by either taking them to the hospital, administering basic first aid, or by calling an ambulance. Under Section 134A of the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019, the rights of good samaritans are protected and they will not be subjected to any harassment from the police or hospital staff. This was first instituted by the Supreme Court in SaveLIFE Foundation vs Union of India PIL.
● Drivers should keep appropriate distance from the vehicle ahead of them so that, in case the vehicle ahead instantly stops/ breaks, there will not be a crash. During harsh weather conditions such as heavy rains, they should reduce the speed of their vehicle.
● Drivers should get routine eye tests to ensure that they have proper vision while driving.
Share
Tweet
