EMBARQ India Responds to Decade of Action for Road Safety

May 11, 2011 - PRLog -- News Release


Contacts:
Erica Schlaikjer, EMBARQ media relations coordinator, +1(202) 729-7722, eschlaikjer@wri.org
Kavita Ramakrishnan, EMBARQ India communications and marketing director, +91 22 2471-3565, KRamakrishnan@wri.org
BMascarenhas@wri.org



EMBARQ India Responds to Decade of Action for Road Safety

MUMBAI, May 11, 2011 – Today marks the official launch of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, a worldwide effort declared by the United Nations General Assembly to save 5 million lives over a ten-year period.

Madhav Pai, director of EMBARQ India, highlights the importance of sustainable transport and urban development in making streets safer:
“The majority of people dying in road traffic accidents in India are the more vulnerable users - pedestrians and bicyclists. The approach needed to address this problem has to be different from the helmets and seat belts model of the West. The big focus has to be on creating high quality low cost mass transport and safe mobility for pedestrians and bicyclists.”

India leads the world in the number of annual reported traffic fatalities, with approximately 127,000 road traffic fatalities in 2009, a 7% increase from the previous year. In the same year, India reported approximately 422,000 road accidents, of which approximately 59,000 occurred in the country’s 35 cities with a million-plus population. Within these city boundaries, the most vulnerable groups are pedestrians and bicyclists.


Additional background on global road safety:

Nearly 1.3 million people are killed on the world's roads each year, and 50 million more people are injured, with many of them disabled for life. An overwhelming 90 percent of road deaths occur in developing countries. If nothing is done to make roads safer, traffic crashes could double by 2030, overtaking AIDS, tuberculosis and lung cancer as the world’s fifth leading cause of premature death.

Part of the problem is the explosive growth in the number of vehicles — from cars to motorcycles — exacerbated by high speeds and a lack of regulation. Children and young people are the most at risk: Road traffic injuries are the number one cause of death among people aged 10-24 years. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists are also especially vulnerable.

The number of road fatalities in India can be expected to grow to 260,000 in 2030, unless new policies are implemented. A comparative evaluation of road traffic fatalities in India vis-a-vis those in Delhi reveals that pedestrians and bicyclists accounted for 63% of total fatalities in Delhi compared to 11% for the country as a whole.  

Many countries around the world have realized the severity of the urban road safety problem and have successfully addressed this issue by: redesigning urban streets to reduce vehicular speeds; improved public transport; and greater priority for pedestrians and bicyclists. Collectively, these interventions are known as the sustainable transport approach to road safety.


The United Nations Road Safety Collaboration and its partners, including EMBARQ, developed the  Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 to guide activities planned by governments, civil society and the private sector over the next ten years to address the tremendous global burden of traffic-related fatalities and injuries.
One of the key "pillars" of activities outlined in the plan are improving the safety of road infrastructure and broader transport networks. This highlights the critical role that cities can play in making streets safer.
EMBARQ India has been making consistent strides to develop sustainable transport solutions in a number of Indian cities. EMBARQ India provides technical assistance to  city governments in Jaipur, Indore, Surat and Bangalore to improve public transport . Further, EMBARQ India has also worked to improve capacity of city officials in the field of BRT, bus operations and non-motorized transport. Finally, EMBARQ India is working with city governments on conducting road safety audits and inspections of major bus corridors in their cities.

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EMBARQ (www.embarq.org) catalyzes environmentally and financially sustainable transport solutions to improve quality of life in cities.

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