Last year, while inaugurating a webinar on ‘Vehicle Crashes and Road Safety’, organised by the MIT Art Design and Technology (ADT) University, Pune, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari remarked that “the target is to reduce 50% of road accidents by 2025”, adding that “we can achieve zero deaths due to road accidents by 2030”. He said that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways had participated in a conference in Sweden in 2020 — the Third High Level Global Conference on Road Safety for Achieving Global Goals 2030’ — where it was conceptualised to have zero road fatalities in India by 2030. Therefore, there was a need to expedite the task of saving lives in accidents.
Though it is essential to remain focused in this approach and be optimistic while fixing targets, the past record of road accidents and available infrastructure to deal with road safety measures in India should not be lost sight of, particularly when the enforcement of motor vehicle-related laws is primarily the responsibility of the States.
