Consumers’ Legal Protection Forum (CLPF), Assam with support of Consumer VOICE, Delhi organized an Annual Road Safety Week on the theme of “5 Days 5 Pledges- for Road Safety from February 1 to 7 in Guwahati.
Awareness camps were organized on five different topics of Helmet, Seat Belt, Child Restraint, Drunk Driving, Over Speeding & Road Design at Narengi Anchalik Mahavidyalay, BRM Govt. Law College, Ramanujan Academy and SR Academy.
Secretary CLPF Ajoy Hazarika informed this annual event represents a significant opportunity to call attention to the road safety situation.
Road accident deaths have reduced in 25 states and Union Territories in the first half of 2017. Only states like Assam, Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh have seen an increase in road accident fatalities between two and eight per cent during this period.
About 1.3 million people die each year on the world’s roads and between 20 and 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries. Road traffic crashes are a major cause of death among all age groups and the leading cause of death among those aged 15–29 years. As per the annual publication ‘Road Accidents in India-2016’ total 4,80,652 road accidents took place resulting into 1,50,785, road traffic deaths and 4,94,624 injuries in a year.
Everyday 1,317 accidents take place and 413 persons are killed on Indian roads. The programme highlights the importance of risk factors and also about the provisions of Motor Vehicles (A) Bill. India can achieve its commitment to United Nations of reducing fatalities by 50% by the year 2020 through passage of MV (A) Bill 2017 and its proper implementation by state governments.
The seven NE states accounted for 9,557 road accidents leading to the death of 3,241 people while 8,868 were injured. “Driver’s fault” was the single most important factor responsible for road accidents. There were 403,598 accidents for which the drivers were at fault.