STATUS OF POTHOLE DEATHS IN INDIA

INTRODUCTION
A pothole is a bowl-shaped depression in pavement surface. It can be caused due to internal
factors like pavement erosion by water seeping under it, due to change in climate, like heavy
rainfall, and external factors such as poor construction management and heavy traffic. The
presence of potholes leads to damage of vehicles, accidents and even death in many cases which
also causes many legal complications. It is therefore necessary to detect, recognize and repair the
potholes to ensure reduction in risk to human lives and vehicles due to such non substantial
reasons. The pothole management system adopted by most government agencies is survey
oriented, requiring heavy usage of resources like manpower, data collection and data analytics
tools and is not foolproof. Also as there is limited automation applied, the probability and
chances of getting optimal inferences is highly reduced. The objective of this paper is to
introduce a system that uses image processing techniques on pothole images. The system aims to
provide statistical information as well as a final geotagged image of an area with pothole location
and information in a fully automated manner, with priority based complaint attendance having
the added benefit of efficient utilization of materials in an extremely economical way. This
would accordingly provide the concerned government body with the various information that
they might require to manage the potholes in that area1.

STATASTICS
India, unfortunately ranks at the top with highest number of fatalities with about 11% share in
the world. The “Road accidents in India 2018" is an effort of the Ministry to highlight the state-
wise data and causes of the accidents and fatalities. The data would help the policy makers to put
in place focused initiatives to address the menace of rising road accidents and resultant fatality.

Roads are considered a sign of development bringing colossal benefits to community as

socioeconomic and logistic facilitator. Yet, growth of road network has brought road crashes
leading to civic pain from premature deaths of productive age group. In 2017, 16 citizens were
killed and 53 injured every hour on Indian roads as per officially reported data, while a fair
1
International Journal of Computer Science & Information Technology (IJCSIT) Vol 7, No 6, December 2015
number go unreported. This is unacceptably high when compared with international standards.
Risk correlates of road traffic injuries (RTIs) need to be redefined so as to form a continuum
with other confounding factors that impact to take lives on road. Risk factors impacting RTIs
vary from human components to the roles and responsibilities of healthcare stakeholders. We
should have made roads safer for all citizens because a large percentage of population – children,
pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, and the elderly – are most vulnerable.2

Potholes in India are emerging as one of the biggest killers. The story of potholes claiming lives
is both alarming and sad. According to a report by The Times of India potholes in India have
claimed a whopping 11,386 lives all over the country, in the past four years. This number
translates to roughly seven deaths, each day, across the country3.

As every day bids us goodbye, as many as 3000 people will have been killed and100 000 more
injured on the world’s roads4. According to the data shared by states with the Centre, Uttar
Pradesh recorded the highest number of pothole deaths at 987. In Maharashtra, the number of
deaths (726) had nearly doubled. Haryana and Gujarat also fare poorly. Haryana reported 522
deaths last year, while it had reported no such fatalities in 2016. Eight people died in Delhi due
to pothole-related accidents in 2017. The same city had seen zero deaths in 2016, which gives a
clear picture of how potholes are becoming a deadly situation for many. Andhra Pradesh, Kerala,
Odisha and West Bengal are there among the top 10 states in deaths related to potholes in the
country.

As per official statistics, potholes claimed 11,836 lives and left 36,421 persons injured in India
from 2013 to 2016. The number of people killed near or on roads under construction also
increased from 3,878 in 2016 to 4,250 last year. India has only 2 pc of the world’s motor
vehicles but accounts for 12 pc of deaths related to traffic accidents. A study by the United
Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), mentions that
road traffic accidents cost India nearly 3 pc of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) a year or, in
absolute terms, about USD 58,000 million.
2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6482791/
3
https://thelogicalindian.com/news/10000-lives-claimed-by-potholes-in-last-three-years/
4
Road safety: the potholes of neglectH.A. Geziary,1 H. El Sayed,2 S.J. Hussain3 and H.I. Sakr, La Revue de Santé
de la Méditerranée orientale, Vol. 10, No 3, 2004
A limitation of liability clause stipulates that a party will be obligated to pay to the other in such
an event under the terms of an agreement. This clause limits the amount as well as the types of
damages a party can recover from the other.

This is an efficient way to cap the liability amount undertaken by a party (usually the service
provider). Invariably, this exposure is capped at the fees paid to the service provider under the
agreement or another small amount which may be more or less than the fees. This way, among
other things,:

i. the party limiting its liability can gauge the extent of its potential exposure under a
particular agreement;
ii. its auditors can also predict the maximum exposure and contingent liabilities; and
iii. the party can take adequate insurance cover to take care of any potential liabilities.

This clause is more prevalent in service agreements and normally favours the service provider
who wants to limit its exposure.

The reason and rationale for such a clause is to protect the service provider from undertaking risk
which may not be commensurate with the small fee that it may be charging for doing a particular
assignment or handling an equipment or thing

Potholes caused the deaths of almost 10 Indians every day last year. 5 In 2017, 597 people had
been killed and 25,000 injured owing to accidents caused by potholes alone. Potholes are so
common it has become second nature for drivers to learn how to spot them from a long way off
and swerve violently to avoid them, causing further accidents. But the problem is that it becomes
hard to spot them during night when there is less light. It isn’t a hype when Supreme Court
judges said that “more people have died due to potholes than by terrorist attack”.

5
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/25/more-deadly-than-terrorism-potholes-responsible-for-killing-10-
people-a-day-in-india#:~:text=Potholes%20caused%20the%20deaths%20of,accidents%20caused%20by
%20potholes%20alone.
CRIMINAL LIABILITY

A limitation of liability clause stipulates that a party will be obligated to pay to the other in such
an event under the terms of an agreement. This clause limits the amount as well as the types of
damages a party can recover from the other.

This is an efficient way to cap the liability amount undertaken by a party (usually the service
provider). Invariably, this exposure is capped at the fees paid to the service provider under the
agreement or another small amount which may be more or less than the fees. This way, among
other things,:

i. the party limiting its liability can gauge the extent of its potential exposure under a
particular agreement;
ii. its auditors can also predict the maximum exposure and contingent liabilities; and
iii. the party can take adequate insurance cover to take care of any potential liabilities.

This clause is more prevalent in service agreements and normally favours the service provider
who wants to limit its exposure.
The reason and rationale for such a clause is to protect the service provider from undertaking risk
which may not be commensurate with the small fee that it may be charging for doing a particular
assignment or handling an equipment or thing.

The only way to get road officials to do their job, says Rohit Baluja of the Institute of Road
Traffic Education in New Delhi, was to charge them with culpable homicide. Under the present
law, no official is charged for deaths caused by potholes6.

If a doctor can face legal action for malpractice or negligence, why can’t civic bodies be held
responsible for road accidents that occur due to potholes caused by their negligence?

The law should have helped the survivors of the crash by punishing the culprits. But in both
cases, the police went after the wrong person. Who then are the real culprits?

The civic authorities whose job is to maintain the roads and the contractors who laid the roads. In
both cases, they obviously fell short. Instead those who were riding the vehicles have been
faulted and booked.7

A lurching halt in a pothole, even at a prescribed speed, can unseat the rider. The pillion rider has
no control and risks falling which could lead to injury and death. The question of speeding here
is not as relevant as the criminal liability of not maintaing the roads.

Standards are often ignored when building roads and sometimes a bad job is done to ensure that
subsequent pothole repair contracts are secured as well. Each monsoon is a trigger for renewed
loot.  In Mumbai, the high court has had to weigh in on behalf of the citizens, asking the civic
body to ensure good roads and keep them pothole-free. It hasn’t become reality yet though.

Civic bodies, being impersonal and therefore insensitive, take these regular raps on the knuckle
in their stride and provide sworn affidavits about how they will correct themselves.  The point is
they don’t. Even Ganapati, the deity of Maharashtrian, has to worry if he can be brought in safely
from the workshop and then taken for immersion without risking injury due to a pothole.

6
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/25/more-deadly-than-terrorism-potholes-responsible-for-killing-10-
people-a-day-in-india#:~:text=Potholes%20caused%20the%20deaths%20of,accidents%20caused%20by
%20potholes%20alone.
7
https://www.firstpost.com/india/killer-potholes-of-india-civic-bodies-should-have-to-pay-up-for-the-deaths-they-
cause-2444758.html
Perhaps the law of torts, whereby they are required to pay for damaged caused, would be the best
way to cure the civic bodies of their habitual neglect.  Given the number of potholes, not just on
any city’s badly-kept roads but on toll-funded highways as well, authorities will have to reckon
with the loss of finances and the need to have a separate department to deal with the cases. But
they have to get the message that the city is run on tax-payer’s money.

It’s not enough to just have a civic body to provide employment to some and political
opportunities to others. It would be a good idea if the accident laws were enabled to provide
succour by levying the burden of compensation on the agencies.

JUSTICE FOR PAVITRA

On February 10, 2014, Manoj Wadhwa was riding his bike on the National Highway-2 in
Faridabad (Haryana). His wife, Tina, was riding pillion and three-year-old son, Pavitra, was
sitting between them.

Manoj spotted a pool of water on the highway and applied hard brakes. The road was slippery,
causing the bike to skid. Pavitra hit a stone on the road and a vehicle run over Tina’s legs. All
this happened within a few seconds, leaving no time for Manoj to understand the situation. He
rushed Tina to the hospital, while some bystanders took Pavitra to another hospital where he was
declared dead on arrival.

Following this, the police filed a closure report, claiming that this was a hit-and-run case. Manoj
was following up with the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the Haryana
Government and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) as well as the police but no
one answered his calls.

Frustrated with the lack of response and the “sloppy” investigation in the matter, Manoj moved
the Punjab and Haryana High Courts to seek justice for Pavitra’s death in 2016. This seemed like
a good decision because the court directed the Faridabad police to set up a Special Investigation
Team (SIT) in August 2018.
The Faridabad city police filed a report with the HC saying that the SIT had found the directors
and project managers of Larsen & Toubro and Delhi-Agra Toll Road Private Ltd responsible for
the condition of the road.

According to the report, the six accused have been charged with “causing grievous hurt by
endangering life or personal safety and causing death due to negligence” under section 173 of the
Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and sections 279, 337 and 304-A of the Indian Penal Code .

Accidents like these are not uncommon in India. In 2017, accidents due to potholes claimed
about ten lives every day! Such horrible numbers call for accountability from the makers of the
road.

CURRENT SITUATION

After the justice for pavitra judgement, in 2018 the Supreme court took some tremendous steps
in the liability in pot hole deaths by appointing a committee to look into the issue.

In what might be a big step towards achieving a permanent compensation scheme for victims of
pothole deaths, the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety has recommended a compensation
of Rs 5 lakh to be paid by the road-owning agency as immediate succour to the deceased's
family. The Committee report has been forwarded by the Supreme Court to the Centre for its
response.

Limiting not just to pothole deaths, the Committee chaired by former apex court judge, Justice
(Retd) KS Radhakrishnan in its report has expanded the scope of compensation to deaths caused
due to manholes and open drains.

This is perhaps the first time ever that an effort has been made to punish the road-owning
agencies — the municipal agencies, state governments or National Highway Authority of India
(NHAI) — have been made personally liable for deaths due to potholes.

The Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill, 2017

In 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party drafted the Road Transport and Safety Bill to replace the
Motor Vehicles Act of 1988, which governs road safety in the country. The act has no provisions
to ensure accountability of road authorities for defects in the engineering, design and
maintenance of roads. It was replaced by the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill, 2017, which was
passed by Lok Sabha and sent to Rajya Sabha. Earlier this week on July 23, the Opposition
parties during the hearing of the bill claimed that it was mainly to help corporations. The
discussion is expected to resume on July 31 in the Rajya Sabha.

According to union road ministry officials the provision for fine against officials has been made
in the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill, 2017. The proposed bill has attempted to address the
issue of liability for road defects. In case of any road crash injury or death caused by defective
road design and engineering, the designated authority responsible to construct and maintain the
road is to be penalised with a sum capped at INR 100,000. The bill directs that safety standards
be prescribed by the central government. However, the bill will not hold road contractors and
engineers criminally liable for causing deaths and injuries.

The blame game

Every year deaths related to potholes seem to increase, especially during monsoons; and just like
every year compensation is given to the family of the victims for their loss. But is the
compensation enough? Instead of filing cases against contractors and engineers in cases of road
maintenance, officials and politicians often blame the drivers for negligence.

Maharashtra PWD minister Chandrakant Patil on July 15 said that pothole-ridden roads cannot
be entirely blamed for accidents. “When you talk about a death in such an accident, you forget
that five lakh other people have travelled on the same road,” he said in a statement to the media.

What initiatives are being taken to improve the situation?

The government has said that it has mandated Road Safety Audit at each stage of the highway
project to provide safer transportation to road users. This Road Safety Audit is being done by
Independent Road Safety Auditor at every stage and its findings are being compiled by the
concessionaire/contractor of the project.
An independent engineer/authority engineer appointed by National Highways Authority of India
(NHAI) and the concerned project directors of NHAI inspect the project highways under their
respective jurisdictions and take suitable short term and long term measures through the
concessionaires/contractors/to ensure that the roads are pothole free.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), a civic body has decided to further experiment
on Bengaluru roads, with a new technique called ‘micro-surfacing’. The technique involves
coating the road with a 6-mm-thick slurry seal. The seal will protect the asphalt and keep it from
crumbling. The technique is more popular outside India and has been introduced in Bengaluru
after successful trials in Chennai, Hyderabad and Chandigarh.

Haryana had launched the Vision Zero programme last year which is aimed at reducing road
traffic accident fatalities to zero in long term. It seems to have made a difference already, as 10
districts where it was rolled out have reported up to 5 pc decline in road accident fatalities. Also,
this month Delhi’s state government approved a similar policy that commits to a 10 pc annual
reduction in accident deaths8.

REPAIRING POTHOLES
There are several methods used for repairing potholes. Nowadays, the most common method is
the pothole filling truck. This truck is equipped with a roller at its rear end and a hole in its base,
which supplies the asphalt-aggregate mixture for filling the pothole.

There are generally two types of patch mixtures used for pothole filling: hot and cold. Cold
mixture is used when the traffic cannot be halted. It takes around 3 minutes for the cold mixture
to set. On the other hand, hot mixture requires some time to set. Use of hot or cold mixture
depends upon the cost and the level of traffic. Hot mixtureis cheaper in cost than the cold
mixture, and cold mixture provides a ready-to-go, durable, and effective repair than the hot
mixture.

“The only solution is to build proper roads. Why do potholes occur on asphalt roads? It's because
we don't construct them properly. There are quality specifications, asphalt has to be of the proper

8
https://mediaindia.eu/business-politics/the-pothole-problem/
grade, the mix has be right and most importantly, rolling temperature has to be as per
specifications. Even after initial rolling, there has to be a period of at least 12 hours of no
physical intervention to allow the material to set. Work on asphalt roads should stop in the
monsoons and yet we all know they continue to work on such roads in heavy rains.” With an
increase in vehicular traffic, safety on roads becomes a critical issue. A survey shows that around
3000 deaths occur each year in India due to potholes on roads. This loss of life needs to be
avoided. Alsowell-maintained roads will strengthen our economy. In the proposed scheme there
will be automatic detectionof potholes using ultrasonic sensors, reduction in the speed of the
vehicle using motor driver to avoid accidents or damage to the vehicle. The GPS receiver will be
used to capture the location coordinates of the potholes and the same will be conveyed to
registered mobile SIM via GSM modem. The android device acting as a server will be inserted
with this mobile SIM card. The sent messages will include information about the depth and
height of the pothole andhump respectively and also its location coordinates.

The mobile application made use in this technique is at a greater distance of benefits because it
supplies timely warnings regarding potholes and humps. This serves as a valuable source of
information to the government authorities and to vehicle drivers.The suggested approach is an
economic solution for detection of dreadful potholes and irregular humps, as it uses cheap cost
ultrasonic sensors. The solution too tasks in season when potholes are crammed with sludgy
water as alerts are generated using the knowledge stored within the database. We feel that the
answer provided during this paper can save many lives and ailing patients that suffer from tragic
accidents. The proposed system takes into consideration the presence of potholes and
humps.However, it doesn't consider the very fact that potholes or humps get repaired by
concerned authorities periodically. This system can be further improved to consider the above
facts and update server database accordingly. Well-maintained roads contribute to a significant
part of the economy of the country.

CONCLUSION:
In India, on an average, 7 people die everyday due to accidents related to potholes. Due to poor
drainage system around roads, and use of poor quality materials for road constructions,
introduction of potholes in Indian roads is very common. This structural failureis generated due
to presence of water below the supporting structure of the roadand then exacerbated by heavy
trafficnear the weakened zone, resulting in formation of a pothole.

Potholes claimed six lives on an average on Indian roads every day in 2016 andthe total number
of such deaths in the country was more than the number ofpeople killed in all types of road
accidents in the United Kingdom last year.While Uttar Pradesh recorded a maximum of 714 such
fatalities followed byMaharashtra (329) out of a total 2,424 deaths across states. Delhi with
thehighest share of vehicles did not report any death due to potholes last year.Government data
indicate how police rarely investigate the real cause of roadcrashes and more so the fatal ones.
Significantly, last year's road accident data compiled by the road transport ministry put the
number of accidents due topotholes at zero despite commuters complaining about potholes on
the cityroads. The data is based on FIRs lodged by police. Police officers privatelyadmit that
cases are hardly filed against road-owning agencies, though in thepast couple of years, there has
been talk of holding such entities responsiblefor their faults. “Almost all such cases are entered
under the head of drivers'fault or bad road condition. Usually police reach the spot late and the
injureddie in hospitals, “said a former transport commissioner, who was also an IPSofficer. Road
safety expert Rohit Baluja said even road engineers in Delhibelieve that less than 1% of road
accidents happen due to engineering faultsand or poor maintenance. “This is unacceptable. We
not only find potholes onroads, but more so at the junctions, which everyone wants to cross
quickly.Since there is no warning of such potholes, the minute a motorist sees it hetakes sudden
left turn to avoid it and ends up hitting another vehicle or gettinghit, “he added. Baluja pointed
out that potholes also cause traffic snarls. Inmany developed countries, warnings are placed on
roads to alert road usersabout manholes ahead. The Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill has
provision forpenalty of RS 1 lakh for road-owning agencies if their fault is found to be thereason
for an accident. This meagre penalty amount has come under criticism,as reported by TOI on
September 24. The Central Road Research Institute hadtold a parliamentary panel that the fine
was too less. In 2016, 54 people wereinvolved in car accidents caused by the poor state of roads
in the capital andfive died Worse, 90% of the 378 fatal two-wheeler accidents were
determinedby police to be due to uneven road surfaces, though officially there are nofigures
recorded specially for mortality due to decrepit roads. Experts said thatthe five deaths related to
dangerous road conditions -potholes speed breakersand poor lighting -compared well with the
national average of 98. While therehas been a steady decrease in fatalities the past three years in
Delhi, thenumber of accidents hasn't diminished. So far, this year bad roads have taken atoll of
five lives, the same as in the whole of 2016. Two of the car accidentsreported in the past month
happened on Ring Road. Records show that mostdeaths occur near residential colonies, on
encroached stretches and near petrolpumps. Roads near construction sites were also found to be
prone to accidents.

The casualties on roads have increased immensely. Major reason for which is the potholes on
roads, thus there is an increasing need and demand in developing asafety system for vehicles.
These systems have evolved over time. These systems make use of electronic circuitry and
ultrasonic sensors to detect potholes. Once the detection is finished, these systems offer a
warning to the drivers either through buzzers or through text messages. Sudish Surandharan et al
has proposed a pothole and pitfalls spotter. In 2017 Stepheena Joseph et al. present that
destructive road conditions may be the outcome of natural events like flooding and tropical rains
that make driving risky. Dangerous conditions of roads can also arise from the destitute
condition of a road and its surroundings. It can cause road accidents. Also,when one drives at
night, headlights are not sufficient enough to help detect potholes or other obstacles. Unforeseen
impediments out and about may cause more mishaps. Additionally,due to terrible road conditions
there will be an expanded fuel utilization of the vehicle which will cause wastage of valuable
fuel.

One of the significant tasks in determining the entire plan of action for pavement conservation
and rehabilitation is precisely the detection of potholes. Manual observation and assessment
methods are exorbitant and time-consuming. Thus, many efforts are being made for advancing a
technology that can automatically detect and acknowledge .