Road Safety

Ever since the beginning of time as we know it, Earth has been covered with different life
forms, which took centuries to evolve into human beings or homo sapiens. The human
population has been growing rapidly ever since.
The growth of population also leads to an increase in the demands of individuals, which are
met by a limited supply. Such is the case of the motors industry, in which an increase in
population led to an increase in mobility but not much has been done to ensure safe
commuting on roads.
A global rise in the amount of vehicles has imposed a need for better infrastructure. Roads,
once considered a boon to humanity, easing the transport from one place to another, are
now considered death sentences. According to the WHO, road injuries rank 10th in causes
of death in lower-middle income countries. It is likely to surpass diabetes and tuberculosis in
the coming years.
There are about 500,000 accidents happening in India every year with approximately
150,000 deaths due to road fatalities.  20 to 40 million people get injured every year
worldwide due to road traffic accidents. The most vulnerable road users are pedestrians,
cyclists, two-wheeler riders, and passengers on public transport.
Apart from increased motorized vehicles, there are other factors that contribute to accidents
like drinking while driving, general rash driving, underage driving, ignoring road signs, and
poor infrastructure.
One way to prevent these accidents is with the help of the Haddon Matrix. The Haddon
Matrix is the most commonly used paradigm in the injury prevention field. Haddon Matrix
uses different phases to analyse causes of accidents and what can be done to prevent it.
These phases are:-

1) Pre Crash
2) Crash
3) After Crash

It has been observed that accidents are prone in areas built long ago with less or no reach of
modern infrastructure, whereas cities built in a planned manner have good traffic control.
There are other ways to create awareness such as webinars, workshops, and by teaching
rad safety to students as part of their curriculum. Following all the road safety measures help
a lot to protect all the road problems. Some effective measures of road safety are like basic
awareness about vehicle, defensive driving according to weather and road conditions, use of
vehicle lights and horn, wearing seat belt, well use of vehicle mirrors, avoid over-speeding,
understanding road lights, maintaining distance of vehicle on road, proper understanding of
handling crisis situation, telecast of awareness documentaries on TV, etc.