According to
the World Health Organization (WHO) India had seen the highest number of road
traffic fatalities in 2010, which is about 15pc of global road traffic
fatalities. According to Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH),
during the period 2003-2013, India’s reported road traffic fatalities grew by
60pc, with around 137,572 fatalities in 2013. When compared with other emerging
market country, China saw a 43pc fatality reduction was observed during
2004-2012.
If 2011 is taken as base year, the fatality
trend will reach about 250,000 by the year 2025 if business as usual continues
with respect to road safety. However, 38pc fatality reduction could be achieved
with strong enforcement on drunk driving, overloading and load protruding and 80%
fatality reduction could be achieved with strong enforcement on driver related
factors –including over- speeding. By 2025, the projected number of fatalities
could be reduced to about 50,000,
According to
a sample study, in 50pc of the accidents, there were no accident avoidance
manoeuvres from the drivers. Only in 30% of the accidents, drivers performed a
brake or swerve manoeuvre or a combination of both. Also, the percentage use of
seat belts by car drivers and front passengers is low (about 16pc). There is a
need to showcase and make road users understand the impact; a typical seat belt
will have a crash scenario.
Jochen Feese,
Head of Accident Research, Sensor Functions and Pedestrian Protection,
Mercedes-Benz Cars said, “Safety is a core value for Mercedes-Benz. Therefore
all our business units stress safety as a priority for the user as well as for
the environment they are operating in. When we learned about the accident and
fatality rates in India, we decided to develop the ‘Safe Roads’ CSR initiative.
This is also in line with our spirit of good corporate citizenship – meaning
that we like to contribute to the society we do business with. We hope that our
initiative will kick-start an era of road safety awareness and will support a
new culture of road safety among the people in India.”
Eberhard
Kern, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz India commented “At
Mercedes-Benz, safety is of utmost importance and precedes all our innovations
and development. Mercedes-Benz’s contribution to global automotive industry is
well recognized and has an enduring influence on safety development. Our
numerous innovations, particularly in the field of protection for vehicle
occupants and road users, have saved countless human lives over the years.”
“Our latest contribution to customer safety is
that, all Mercedes-Benz vehicles in India now comes equipped with new rescue
stickers with QR Codes, which assists rescuer to find out where to exactly
position the rescue tools on the cars- making occupant rescue harmless and
safer, in case of an accident. Mercedes-Benz India is the first luxury car
maker to implement this in India. We are confident that initiatives like ‘Safe
Roads’ will enhance the understanding of a vehicle safety systems and spread
the awareness on creating safer roads for vehicle users in India. Considering
the alarming rate of accidents on Indian roads, we strongly need to address not
only various behavioural aspects of the vehicle users and the related
infrastructure measures, but also consider making our vehicles safer and
smarter by introducing advanced safety features and driver assistance systems. We
strongly believe ‘Safe Roads’ initiative will be able to underline all these
aspects comprehensively and make Indian roads, ‘safer’.” Kern added.
Following the
flag-off at New Delhi, the ‘Safe Roads’ CSR initiative will be travelling to
Ahmedabad, and later to Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.