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Revision as of 14:54, 20 August 2015
This is a collection of newspaper articles selected for the excellence of their content. |
Accidents, road: all India
1 death every 4.5 min in road accidents ‘In 2008, Country Witnessed 4.85L Road Accidents In Which 1.2L People Died’ Dipak Kumar Dash | TNN
New Delhi: Indian roads witness one road mishap every minute and one death in accidents every four and a half minutes, according to the latest report of the road, transport and highways ministry.
The report, which was released this week by the transport research wing of the ministry, said that in 2008, the country witnessed 4.85 lakh road accidents in which 1.2 lakh people lost their lives. And more than half of the road accident victims are in the age group of 25 and 65 years, the ‘key wage earning and child raising age group’.
Similarly, the report estimates that these road accidents left 5.2 lakh people injured.
The annual road accident document also points to high fatalities — almost 65% of the all road deaths — on national and state highways in comparison to other roads. In 2008, while 42,670 persons died on NHs, the state highways claimed 34,081 lives. ‘‘The deaths are on rise despite the ministry spending more on road safety in the last six years. We are not analyzing the actual reasons behind road accidents. Had technical people with road safety expertise been in-charge of the affairs, the situation would not have slipped to this alarming level,’’ said a senior ministry official.
While in 2004-05, the ministry spent Rs 35 crore out of the allocated fund of Rs 39.7 crores, in 2008-09 it shot to Rs 54.8 crore. The report singles out fault of the drivers as the major reason of road deaths. This claimed 89,360 persons in 2008. Fault of cyclists, pedestrians, motor vehicles and bad road and weather conditions were also identified as some of the factors for fatalities on roads across the country.
However, ministry sources said that in the absence of proper investigation of road mishaps, local police put the onus of these accidents on the drivers. ‘‘The report is silent on how the governments’ failure to regulate the issuance of driving licences and lack of proper training of drivers are contributing to this high occurrence of road mishaps,’’ officials said on condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, the ministry has set an ambitious target to bring down road deaths by 50% in the next two years. For this purpose, the budget estimate for 2010-11 has been increased to Rs 180 crore from Rs 74 crores in the previous year. RISKY ROADS Total road deaths in 2008: 1,06,591 persons Share of national highways: 42,670 persons Share of state highways: 34,081 persons People who died due to drivers’ fault: 89,360
Fatal Accidents Act, 1855
Dhananjay Mahapatra TNN
The Times of India, July 9, 2011
SC: Mughal-era legislation still governs road accident relief
Apart from the penal laws punishing drunk drivers running over people, the offender can be sued by the victim’s relatives for compensation under a law that was enacted when the last Mughal Emperor, Bahadur Shah Zafar, was the titular head of the throne at Delhi.
Taking note of this, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to immediately commence work to draft a new law to replace the archaic legislation. It expressed serious concerns over the extreme inadequacies in the law governing suits for damage filed by relatives to claim compensation for death due to rash and negligent act, including drunken driving cases. It rapped the government for not taking note of a 20-year-old apex court judgment recommending drastic change in the 1855 law or a new legislation to meet the present-day challenges. A bench of Justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha said, “We are constrained to observe that a suit for damages for a murder of a person, like the present one, is filed under the Fatal Accidents Act, 1855. As the year of enactment shows, the Act dates back to the period when the greater part of the country was under the control of East India Company with the last Mughal ‘Emperor’, Bahadur Shah Zafar, as the ineffective, though titular monarch on the throne at Delhi.”
The Act was enacted to provide compensation to families for loss occasioned by the death of a person caused by actionable wrong. “It is a matter of grave concern that such sensitive matters like payment of compensation and damages for death resulting from a wrongful or negligent act are governed by a law which is more than one and a half centuries old,” said Justice Alam, who wrote the judgment for the bench. With anguish it remembered that a constitution bench of the Supreme Court in a 1990 judgment had said: “The Fatal Accidents Act, on account of its limited and restrictive application, is hardly suited to meet such challenge. We are, therefore, of the opinion that the old antiquated Act should be drastically amended or fresh legislation should be enacted which should contain appropriate provisions for various exigencies.” Justice Alam said: “It is unfortunate that the observations of the SC have so far gone completely unheeded.”
India's highest road fatalities 2008 to 2013 were in Delhi
Delhi sees most road deaths in India
New Delhi
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
The Times of India Jun 24 2014
About 40 busloads of citizens die on the capital’s roads every year. From 2008 to 2013, more than 12,300 people died in road accidents here. Last year alone, there were a total of 1,820 deaths.
An assessment of road accidents done by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) reveals that not only does Delhi have the most dangerous roads in the country but pedestrians and bikers are at the greatest risk on them. On average, five people die in road accidents every day, and four of them are either pedestrians or twowheeler riders.
The traffic police have identified 128 accident hotspots — places where three or more fatal accidents, or 10 accidents have occurred in a year -and the CSE assessment shows that northwest and southwest Delhi have the most such spots. Taken design-wise, signal-free arterial roads are the most dangerous.
Ironically, roads that have received the maximum government attention and resources for widening and signal-free movement have the highest accident rates.
“These features have, in fact, turned arterial roads into death traps. Especially dangerous are spots where flyovers begin, such as Dhaula Kuan, AIIMS, Sarita Vihar, Mahipalpur, Rajokri, ITO or IP, and Moti Bagh,” says the report released on Monday.
Eight key arterial roads, designed to be high-speed corridors, record nearly 75% of all deaths in Delhi alone.
For nearly a decade now, road infrastructure in Delhi has received a lot of attention but despite having the best roads in the country, the city leads in terms of traffic fatalities. Mumbai records far more accidents—25,000 in 2012—but the number of deaths is around 500. Even Chennai, with 9,000 accidents annually has 1,350 fatalities. However, Delhi has the highest percentage of fatal accidents. Last year, 1,820 persons died in 7,566 accidents.
Traffic experts say violation of rules is rampant in Delhi, and speeding is a common offence due to the better road conditions. This year, more than 3 lakh motorists have been challaned for jumping signals and 45,158 for speeding.
Also, more than 14,000 cases of drunken driving have been detected.
Anil Shukla, additional commissioner of police (traffic), said policies on road safety are framed in fits and starts. “Our
roads should be so designed that they are forgiving of the mistakes drivers make,” he said. At the same time, existing laws are not strong enough to deter traffic violations. For instance, the fine for many serious offences is a meagre Rs 100.
Shukla gave the example of a traffic junction, where 1.3 lakh violations were detected in a month, and a man who was challaned 144 times in three months but did not correct his ways. “About 15% are court challans. Most wait for Lok Adalat hearings where cases are settled by paying a fine of Rs 10 or Rs 20. For a person who can afford a Rs 45-lakh car, does a fine of Rs 100 matter?” Half of the road casualties (dead and injured) in Delhi are pedestrians (44%) and cyclists (6%), while nationally, the numbers are 9% and 5%, respectively. Till May this year, 325 people had died in accidents at night and 332 during daytime. An IIT Delhi study of AIIMS Flyover showed that after the cloverleaf was opened, speeds increased by 21.5%, 22.6%, 15% and 31.6% for heavy vehicles, cars, three wheelers and two wheelers, respectively.
Yet, nearly 22% of pedestrians continued to cross the road at ‘grade’ level although a pedestrian underpass is provided.
2010-12: Road accidents
Roads in Punjab most fatal in India
Dipak Kumar Dash | TNN
The Times of India 2013/08/16
New Delhi: Chances of getting killed in a road accident is the highest in Amritsar and in the country’s Mercedes capital Ludhiana.
Latest data on road fatalities shows that at least six people died in every 10 road crashes in these two cities in 2012 against only three in Delhi, which recorded maximum fatalities in 2012. Though Mumbai recorded the highest number of accidents among 50 million-plus cities, the fatality rate was only 2%.
The ‘Road Accidents in India’ report prepared by the transport research wing of the road ministry also shows that roads in Punjab are proving to be fatal for commuters. The severity of accident – deaths per 100 mishaps – in the state has been increasing in the past four years. While it was 65.9% in 2009, this increased to 76% in 2012.
“Ludhiana and Amritsar are the worst examples. But the state as a whole is also losing over 4,800 lives in road accidents. We have heterogeneous traffic, little enforcement of noentry timings and huge problem of drink driving,” said Dr Kamalzit Singh Soi, vice-chairman of Punjab Road Safety Council.
The industrial city of Ludhiana has around 1.4 million vehicles for its 3.5 million people, of whom 20-30% are migrant labourers. Soi said traffic coming from six districts passed through the city and almost 23 km of the under-expansion Panipat-Jalandhar highway runs through the urban area.
“On top of this, annually around 35 crore bottles of liquor are sold in the state that has a population of only 2.7 crore. Out of this, around 1.49 crore are women. So, we can make out how many times and how many people drive in a drunken state,” he said.
Cases of drunk driving accidents decline
The continuous decline in accidents caused due to intake of alcohol/drugs in the past three years has come as a breather for the government. While in 2010 such violation caused 31,000 accidents, the number of such mishaps reduced to 23,979 last year. Even the fatalities have fallen from 9,976 in 2010 to 7,835 in 2012. Uttar Pradesh reported maximum fall in fatalities in this category from 4,635 in 2011 to 2,400 last year. TNN
2012: Road accidents
Delhi is the road death capital too
Dipak Kumar Dash TNN 2013/06/25
New Delhi: New Delhi besides being the capital of the country holds the dubious distinction of being the road death capital. In the year 2012, the city recorded 1,527 deaths in accidents.
Latest data on accidental deaths released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that India’s overall record deteriorated further, with the toll crossing 1.39 lakh during 2012 in comparison to little over 1.36 lakh in the previous year. Chennai seems to be moving closer to the national capital registering 1,401 road fatalities in 2012.
“While Delhi has witnessed high growth of vehicles resulting in slowing down of traffic, the situation is different in Chennai. Roads have become better and the speed of vehicles has increased,” said a road transport ministry official.
The data shows that at all India level, Tamil Nadu has overtaken Uttar Pradesh registering 16,175 deaths during 2012. UP reported 15,109 deaths while Andhra recorded 15,000 fatalities and Maharashtra ranked four among the states with 13,936 deaths
Dipak Kumar Dash
2013
Accidents involving two-wheelers
Two-wheelers claim 94 lives every day
Dipak Kumar Dash
Two-wheelers claim 94 lives a day while trucks and lorries account for 66 fatalities, according to the NCRB report for 2013. Though overall, there is marginal reduction in total number of people killed on roads last year in comparison to 2012, these two indicators signal how there is little regulation or enforcement of road safety measures.
Casualties reduced: 2011-13
Fixing black spots brings deaths down
Dipak Dash The Times of India Feb 02 2015 New Delhi
Road Casualties Dip By 28% In 2 Yrs: Report Showing that efforts to fix black spots can help reduce road fatalities, the first-ever comparative analysis of trends from the top 25 black spots in 13 states has shown deaths coming down by over 28% in two years. While the number of such deaths was 3,017 in 2011, it came down to 2,153 in 2013. Black spots are locations which report abnormally high number of road crashes. The road transport ministry had flagged off identifying black spots on roads for the first time in 2011 and had also pushed for treatment of such zones.
The 13 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Kerala, Gujarat, Bihar and West Bengal, together account for 88.4% of the total road crashes in the country . According to the data compiled by the transport research wing of the ministry , the maximum reduction in fatalities at such spots was reported in Tamil Nadu. In absolute numbers, the decline was 385 fatalities between 2011 and 2013.
Madhya Pradesh registered almost 60% reduction in fatalities at such high-risk spots on its roads.
But some other states, including Haryana and West Bengal, reported a minor increase in fatalities. “States where there is no reduction in fatalities are a greater concern for us. The steps taken there are not proving to be adequate. Even in other states, the effort has to achieve zero fatalities at such spots since the agencies are now aware of the causes of crashes and what they need to do to rectify those factors,“ a transport ministry official said.
Officials and road safety experts said certain points or stretches have become black spots because of inadequate facilities to road users, bad road design such as blind turns, lack of traffic signals or narrow junctions.
As per a government report, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which is responsible for fixing 203 of the 322 identified black spots, has completed short-term measures at 159 spots. It has completed longterm remedial measures at 57 spots and work is in progress at another 125 spots.
“But what we are now observing is that new black spots are being identified, once the old ones are fixed.So, we are going to carry out a detailed study of black spots in five states -UP, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Delhi -to identify the steps that need to be taken,“ a ministry official said.
Traffic accidents: highest in May, lowest in monsoons
STATOISTICS - RAIN-FALL
The Times of India Aug 02 2014
The monsoon might mean waterlogged roads, flooding of low-lying areas, overflowing of gutters and ditches -complete traffic chaos in a nutshell. An analysis of NCRB data on traffic accidents in the past ten years shows the positive side of this turmoil. At the all-India level, July, August and September witness the lowest number of accidents. May, on the other hand, is the month that sees the most accidents. Experts link this to clear weather during the month in most of the country and the fact that truckers' working hours increase also because goods are being transported before the rains make it more difficult to do so. Because engines tend to heat up during the day in the summer, commercial transport seeks to maximize the night. With visibility also good, average speeds tend to rise too, hence the larger number of accidents in May. The monsoon, in contrast, increases caution and reduces speed and volume of traffic. A state-wise analysis shows variations from this all-India trend. But these can also be linked to the local climate and terrain. For instance, accidents spike in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh during the winters, perhaps due to the dense fog often seen in these months
The legal aspect
Compensation a right of mishap victims: HC
Shibu Thomas, TNN | Aug 29, 2013
MUMBAI: Victims of road accidents and their next of kin have a right under law to claim compensation, the Bombay high court has ruled. Twenty-three years after a Yavatmal-based bank officer lost his life in a road accident involving an MSRTC bus, Justice A P Bhangale ordered the state transport undertaking to pay Rs 6.51 lakh, along with interest, to his wife and three children.
The judge threw out the MSRTC's contention that the deceased bank officer, Mukundrao Dongre (38), could not be categorized as a third party eligible for compensation under the third-party risk insurance rule.
"I find it difficult to accept the submission that the victim was a person 'other than third party'," said the judge. "The Motor Vehicle Act provides for mandatory third-party insurance, which is compulsory for any motor vehicle owner. The objective of the act is to ensure that the third party receives just and fair compensation from the owner of the offending motor vehicle and receives compensation."
The court said the law protects victims of road accidents. "The right of the victim of a road accident to claim compensation is statutory. The legislature in its wisdom enacted the (law) to protect the victims of road accidents, who may be travelling in the vehicle or using the road, and thereby made it obligatory that no motor vehicle shall be used unless the vehicle is compulsorily insured against third-party risk."
The court said the MSRTC could not escape paying compensation by claiming that the other vehicle was responsible for the accident. "If liability is denied, it is for the MSRTC to plead and prove rashness and negligence on the part of the driver of the jeep if according to it the jeep was the offending motor vehicle... Mere allegation is not enough."
Mere absence of or fake or invalid driving license or disqualification of the driver for driving at the relevant time are not in themselves defences available to the MSRTC against the third parties."
Drivers, women
Women are safer drivers, says police study Indrani Basu TNN
The Times of India, Oct 17, 2011
New Delhi: Busting the stereotype about women being bad drivers, a report compiled by Delhi Traffic Police reveals that woman drivers cause less than 2% of all fatal road mishaps in the city and their involvement in accidents has dropped in the past few years despite more women taking the wheel.
Till September 15 this year, 12 fatal accidents were caused by women in Delhi, against 724 by men, the report said. Woman drivers were involved in 53 accidents causing injury while the number for men was 2,524. Even in accidents which did not cause injuries, the male-female ratio was 284:4.
“The data does not support the popular impression that women are poor drivers,” said joint CP (traffic) Satyendra Garg. Women smash stereotype, more cautious behind wheel
New Delhi: A report compiled by the Delhi Traffic Police has debunked the age-old stereotype about women being bad drivers as they are found to be involved in less than 2% of all fatal road mishaps in the city. They are believed to be more cautious and therefore responsible for fewer accidents.
“The number of women drivers is just a fraction of the number of men who drive. But even proportionately, women are involved in far fewer accidents and incidents of rash driving than their male counterparts,” said joint commissioner of police (traffic) Satyendra Garg.
“Our impression is women are far safer drivers, with a tendency to follow traffic rules. This disproves the contention that women cannot drive,” he added.
The report is in sharp contrast to the findings of a recent “perception-based” survey by an industry chamber which said women were more aggressive drivers and caused more road fatalities.
Overall, 5,432 road accident cases were reported in the city till September 15, of which woman drivers were found to be responsible for 69 – just over 1% of the total.
The report said over the years, the involvement of woman drivers in accidents has also decreased. While in 2008 women were found to be involved in 107 road accidents, the figure dropped to 101 and then 72 in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Despite stringent checks by the traffic police, women have not been found driving drunk.
Driving school instructors too rubbish perceptions of women having poor motor skills. “More number of women have started driving. Though they are predominantly young girls in the age group of 18-20 years, women of all ages, including between 55 and 60 years, also come to us for learning how to drive. Women are more diligent students and are interested in learning traffic rules carefully. They are perhaps more hesitant and cautious but that is better than rash driving,” said Gaurav Kaghait, senior instructor at New Star Motor Driving College in Kalkaji.
Death of foetus in mishap
Rs 2.5L relief for unborn child’s death in mishap
HC Compares Dead Foetus With Minor Child
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
From the archives of The Times of India 2007, 2009
2010
New Delhi: In an important ruling, the Delhi High Court has held that an unborn dead foetus can be considered on par with a minor child while fixing compensation. It directed an insurance company to pay extra compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh to a man who lost his pregnant wife in a road accident in 2008.
HC allowed an appeal filed by one Prakash seeking compensation for his unborn child as his plea was ignored by the Motor Accident Claim Tribunal (MACT). The court, however, made it clear that the dead foetus cannot be compared with a grown-up child, because by then a child’s presence in the life of his or her parents has created enough memories for them to feel greater pain at the loss of their child. This pain will be lesser were an unborn child to die as in that case there will be no memories to cherish.
‘‘This court holds that an unborn child — aged five months onwards in mother’s womb till its birth — is treated as equal to a child... the foetus is another life in a woman and loss of foetus is actually loss of child in the offing,’’ HC reasoned, while allowing the appeal and the compensation of Rs 2.5 lakh along with an interest rate of 7.5 per annum to Prakash.
While the MACT had already awarded Rs 6.11 lakh to the petitioner for the accident in which his wife died with sevenmonth-old foetus in her womb, the tribunal had not taken into account the death of foetus as a factor.
HC directed the insurance company to deposit Rs 2 lakh with the UCO bank as fixed deposit within a month and release rest of the amount to the victim’s family.
On his part, the petitioner argued that the MACT Tribunal had ignored the plea on a ground that post-mortem report has not mentioned anything about the presence of foetus. The counsel argued the road accident took place on June 8, 2008 and the foetus was removed from the woman’s womb on June 17 and the mother died on August 14.
Clarifying that the foetus was absent at the time of the victim’s death, the lawyer submitted the statements of doctors from Shushruta Trauma Centre and LNJP who treated the woman soon after the accident and removed the foetus after the unborn baby died in the womb due to the accident.
toireporter@timesgroup.com
Financial aid to victim
Mar 03 2015
Amit Choudhary
Increases compensation in HP case
SC: States must aid accident victim's kin if accused is poor
If death is caused by rash and negligent driving and the driver is unable to pay adequate compensation to the victim's family because of his poor financial status, the state government must step in and pay the amount, the Supreme Court has ruled. “We are of the view that where the accused is unable to pay adequate compensation, the court ought to have awarded compensation under Section 357A from the funds available under the Victim Compensation Scheme framed under the said section,“ a bench of Justices T S Thakur and A K Goel said.
It increased the amount of compensation awarded by the Himachal Pradesh high court to family members of a girl who died in a road accident from Rs 40,000 to Rs 4 lakh. Considering the poor financial condition of the convicted truck driver, the bench directed him to pay Rs 1 lakh and asked the state government to pay the remaining Rs 3 lakh.
The bench said if the driver failed to pay the amount, he had to undergo a six months' jail term and in that case the entire compensation of Rs 4 lakh would have to be paid by the state government.
“We modify the impugned order passed by the high court and enhance the compensation to be paid by the driver to Rs1 lakh to be paid within four months failing which the sentence awarded by the court of sessions shall stand revived,“ it said.
“In addition, we direct the state of Himachal Pradesh to pay an interim compensation of Rs 3 lakh. In case the driver fails to pay any part of the compensation, that part of compensation will also be paid by the state so that the heirs of the victim get total sum of Rs 4 lakh towards compensation. The amount already paid may be adjusted,“ the bench said.
2004-2013
2014
The Times of India, Jul 19 2015
Dipak Dash
16 lives lost every hour, India's roads deadliest ever in 2014
Delhi had the worst record among cities32% died on roads, 7% in ops: NCRB
Indian roads were at their deadliest in 2014 claiming more than 16 lives every hour on an average.Over 1.41 lakh people died in accidents, 3% more than the number of fatalities in 2013.The numbers of crashes and of people left injured -at 4.5 lakh and 4.8 lakh -were also at the highest levels since the recording of such data started in India. According to the latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), speeding and danger ous driving were the biggest reasons for road fatalities. Accidents involving two-wheelers and lorries accounted for nearly half of the lives lost in road crashes.
Among 53 mega cities, Delhi registered the highest number of fatalities at 2,199. It was followed by Chennai (1,046), Bhopal (1,015) and Jaipur (844).
While 13,787 two-wheeler drivers were killed in crashes, 23,529 other people were killed in accidents involving these vehicles, while close to 1.4 lakh people were left injured. Speeding accounted for about 1.7 lakh crashes and nearly 49,000 deaths. Dangerouscareless driving or overtaking claimed another 42,000-plus lives in 1.4 lakh crashes.
Most deaths in UP, P 18 Over four times more paramilitary personnel die in road accidents than fighting terrorists or Maoists. New National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data show that of 1,232 central armed police force (CAPF) deaths in 2014, 32% were due to road accidents while only 7% were due to operations against terrorists. As many 175 committed suicide while 12 died in fratricide.
According to the data, 32.1%, 8.4% and 7.2% casualties in CAPFs were due to roadrailways accidents, natural calamities and killed in action operationencounteretc. respectively .
This is the first time government has specifically collected data on deaths of paramilitary personnel and assigned them various causes.The forces include BSF, CRPF, SSB, NSG, ITBP , CISF and As sam Rifles which have a cumulative strength of 9.27 lakh.
There have been forcespecific studies done earlier but never a comprehensive one. For example, in 2014 home ministry put out data that showed more CRPF men died due to diseases than fighting Maoists.
According to that data, in 2014, while 50 CRPF men died in Maoist attacks, 95 died due to various diseases. Of these 27 fell to malaria, while 35 died due to heart attack. Most paramilitary personnel died in roadrail accidents in Telangana.
With 111 of 194 deaths in the state belonging to this category, it makes up for 66.7% of all CAPF deaths in the state. There are three other states that have more than 50% CAPF deaths due to roadrail accidents. These include Jammu & Kashmir (27 out of 43), Arunachal Pradesh (17 out of 24), and West Bengal (5 out of 8). Interest ingly , there is not a single operation-related death in Jammu and Kashmir, indicating increased normalcy .
The data, however, put maximum CAPF deaths in the undefined “unnatural deaths“ category. Excluding roadrail accidents, this accounts for 51.3% of total CAPF deaths due to causes other than natural death.
Not surprisingly , Chhattisgarh which has seen the worst of Maoist violence over the years, has recorded maximum casualties in operations. Chhattisgarh accounted for 31 out of 89 deaths in operations.
Curiously Uttar Pradesh, which has been comparatively much quieter as far as Maoist violence is concerned and does not share borders with any hostile country , comes a close second accounting 30 operational deaths. They together make up for over 68% deaths in operations.
Jammu & Kashmir has accounted for 66.7% of total fratricide incidents (8 out of 12), pointing at some level stressful conditions in which jawans function there.
Road accidents: peacetime killer among soldiers
The Times of India Apr 21 2015
Rajat Pandit
At least 300 jawans die every year
Without going to war the Army has lost well over 6,500 soldiers in peacetime since the 1999 Kargil conflict. Around half that the number of soldiers were killed in each of the three wars fought in 1962 1965 and 1971.
It includes around 4,700 “battle casualties” occurring due to enemyterrorist ac tion and extreme weather natural disasters in high-alti tude areas as well as different kinds of on-duty mishaps, in cluding road accidents.
Over these numbers, sui cides constitute a major chunk of “non-operational“ deaths. Around 100 soldiers take their own lives in the Army's highly-disciplined environs every year despite successive governments holding several measures have been taken to reduce stress in the 1.17 million-strong force. Just since 2010, over 520 soldiers have committed suicide.
But the toll in counter-ter rorism operations has largely been brought under control over the last several years, even though soldiers are still not properly equipped with basic protection gear like light-weight modular bulletproof jackets and ballistic helmets. The annual counter-terror casualty rate is now down to below 50 from around 300 just over a decade ago.
The Army may have gained “ascendancy“ over militancy but it's finding it difficult to tackle the biggest peace-time killer among its ranks. Consider this: 313 soldiers were killed in road accidents in 2003, 315 in 2004 and 295 in 2005. A decade later, the numbers still stand at 306 (2012), 297 (2013) and 284 (2014), as per data collected by TOI.
The ongoing Army commanders' conference in New Delhi would do well to focus on concrete measures to reduce road accidents in the force.These could range from more rigorous training for drivers and proper pre-induction training before deployment in treacherous terrain as well as stricter overall monitoring and phasing out of old vehicles.
A senior officer, however, contended the number of deaths was “not much“ compared to the “sheer volume“ of the Army's vehicular movement across the country . Take just the infantry , which has 382 battalions with 800-900 soldiers each. There are around 40 vehicles, from motorcycles to heavy-duty ALS 5-tonne trucks, in each battalion.
“Yes, there are many cases of negligent driving. But our drivers also have to drive in snow-bound mountains, deserts, jungles or marshes. If one truck goes down a valley , 20 soldiers could be killed in one go,“ said another officer.
There is also the “fatigue factor“ in long convoys, which carry troops, ammunition and other supplies, to different areas. “Proper maintenance of vehicles is also carried out, with older ones like the famous Shaktiman trucks being phased out,“ he said.
UP: No Accident Day, 2015
The Times of India, Jul 02 2015
UP's `No Accident Day' a hit as no mishap in three big cities
UP's ambitious `No Accidents Day' saw something close to a miracle. No road mishaps in three of its biggest cities -Meerut, Agra and Bareilly -were reported on July 1 till late in the evening. To make the campaign successful, police had been deployed at high-accident `grey' and `black' spots across the state.At many places they conducted eye check-ups. The state reported 16,287 deaths from traffic accidents and 22,337 injuries in 2014.According to traffic officials, 70% of road mishaps occur due to negligence, while 10% occur because of snags.
