Road safety in India is something that is talked of only when the newspapers point out that over 200 deaths occur on the National Highway 8 (connecting Delhi and Jaipur), or some other such eyebrow raising facts. Otherwise, the authorities seem to leave it to the common man to fend for himself when it comes to road safety.

To begin with if you notice the bus drivers who are driving buses on long routes as well as the ones that drive on city roads have a feeling that driving a heavy vehicle also means that they own the road. They would overtake from the left and force their ways into the lanes of other smaller vehicles. Even buses such as the Volvo service being operated by the Haryana Road Transport Corporation are driven in a very lunatic manner.

Then come the drivers on two wheelers. They are the most adversely affected in case of accidents, and still they are the ones that care least when it comes to road safety. You’d be surprised to see so many two wheeler drivers jumping the read light and riding on the wrong side of the lane. All is being done to save a few minutes here and kilometer or so there. Wearing of helmets is seen as a compulsion that has been imposed by the traffic police. People go to the extent of wearing hard hats, used at the construction sites, as helmets. This is other than those who prefer to wear broken and helmets without any standard accredition.

Add to this the odd sort of traffic that is found in India. There are horse pulled carts, tractors, rickshaws, cycles and what not sharing not only the roads but also the highways. The risk that they undertake, they are not even aware of. The police does not even bother these people and neither do they bother to take a while to give safety a thought.

Now we may come to the cars. Speed limit is a sign that is there for others. This is the attitude that most drivers have when they’re on the highway. They drive without the consideration that some animal might just walk into the road without giving them time to think. Then there are all the other drivers who may commit a mistake, or even a villager who might decide to walk onto the road at a time when he thinks apt.

The problem is not just in the people. The problem lies with the fact that we as a whole country view road safety. Everyone is more concerned about things like time and ease of travel. But what we fail to acknowledge is the requirement for road safety. There is no requirement for schools to introduce a class on road safety and issues relating to it. Places such as United Kingdom too have road accidents. However, the traffic system there is altogether different. People do make mistakes, but all children in schools are talked to about road safety and how to act in times of emergencies.

God forbid, if any major city in India is ever hit by a large natural calamity or such a thing, people are never prepared for them. Proper drills should be conducted in schools, offices and all major institutions in order to keep people prepared for handling such scenarios. An earthquake such as the one that hit Gujrat a couple of years back causes a lot more casualty than it should because of the fact that most people never know what is the right way to act in such scenarios.

Similarly, in case of road accidents, people are not aware of the procedure to be followed. Very few people are aware of first aid methodologies. These all facts add up to the increased death toll and other casualty in our road accident cases. If the people were more aware and more concerned about the risks associated on the roads as well as take adequate precautions, then the number of such casualties can easily be brought down to a more minimal figure.