ROAD ACCIDENTS IN

INDIA
Road safety is a multi-sectorial and multi-dimensional subject. Owing to
unsafe conditions on roads, the rate of accidents in India has been high.
According to WHO statistics for 2002, out of about 11.8 lakh road
accident deaths across the world, 84,674 deaths were reported from
India alone.
In the year 2004, the number of road accident deaths in India increased
to 92,618.
In India with the expansion in road network, motorization and
urbanization in the country, the number of road accidents have surged.
Road traffic injuries and fatalities have emerged as a major public
health concern, with RTIs having become one of the leading causes of
deaths, disabilities and hospitalizations which impose severe socioeconomic costs across the world.
Road safety is an issue of national concern, considering its magnitude
and gravity and the consequent negative impacts on the economy,
public health and the general welfare of the people.
World Health Statistics 2008 cited in Global Status Report on Road
Safety states that RTIs in 2004 were the 9th leading cause of death and
at current rates by 2030 are expected to be the 5th leading cause of
death.
The United Nations has rightly proclaimed 2011-20 as the decade of
action on road safety and have called upon all member countries to
prepare a decadal action plan for implementation in their respective
countries so that the present rising trend of road accidents stabilizes
and is reversed by the year 2020.
Road traffic injury prevention and mitigation should be given the same
attention and scale of resources that are currently being channeled
towards other predominant health issues, if increasing human loss and
injury on the roads, with their devastating human impact and large
economic cost to society are to be avoided.

BIBILOGRAPHY
1.Verghese, Mohan D. Transportation injuries in rural Haryana, North
India 1991. Proceedings of International Conference on Traffic Safety
27-30 January 1991, New Delhi, India.

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3. WHO. Road traffic accidents in developing countries. Technical report
series No. 73. World Health Organization, Geneva 1984
4. . Johnston I. Action to reduce road causalities. World Health Forum
1992; 13(203): 154-62.