Lancet study on Road Accidents

Lancet study on Road Accidents- Relevance for UPSC Exam

Lancet study on Road Accidents: Road accidents are one of the major cause of death and disability in India. In this context, Lancet study on Road Accidents is an important document to understand the road accidents and formulate effective policies and programs to reduce the number of road accident. Lancet study on Road Accidents is important part of UPSC Mains GS Paper 2 Syllabus (Governance, Administration and Challenges- Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation).

Lancet study on Road Accidents in News

• A recent Lancet study on Road Accidents found that vehicle speeding accounted for the most deaths due to road accidents in India.

About Lancet study on Road Accidents

• About: The Lancet Study is the first study that gives country-specific estimates of the effect of addressing the four main road safety risk factors through interventions for 185 countries.
• Data Source: The Lancet Study on Road Accidents uses mortality data from Global Burden Diseases, 2017, which are based on modelling and estimated 2,18, 876 deaths due to road injuries in India in 2017.
  • On the other hand, the Government of India’s figures which suffer from under-reporting stood at 1,47,913 for the year.
• Key Indicators: The Lancet Study analyses data from 74 studies in 185 countries on four key risk factors for road injuries and deaths-
  • Speeding,
  • Drink driving,
  • Non-use of crash helmets and
  • Seat belts

Lancet study on Road Accidents- Key Findings

• Saving Lives: Lancet Study suggest that routinely wearing helmets and seat belts, obeying speed limits, and avoiding driving drunk could save between 347,000 and 540,000 lives worldwide every year.
  • Steps undertaken to reduce speeding such as infrastructure changes and electronic speed control could save an estimated 3,47,258 lives globally each year.
  • Measures to tackle drunk driving such as enhanced enforcement could save a further 16,304 lives.
  • An estimated 1,21,083 and 51,698 lives could be saved by enforcing rules on wearing seat belts and motorcycle helmets.
• Role of Helmets: The benefits of more motorcyclists wearing helmets would be the biggest in China, where 13,703 lives could be saved every year, followed by Brazil (5,802 lives), and India (5,683 lives).
• Road Traffic Injuries: Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are the eighth leading cause of death globally for all ages and the first cause in the 5-29 years age group.
  • Close to 14 lakh people die each year, and up to 5 crore are injured by road traffic injuries.

Lancet study on Road Accidents- Key Findings On India

• In India, interventions to check speeding could save 20,554 lives and promotion of crash helmets could save 5,683 lives.
• Encouraging the use of seat belts can also save 3,204 lives in the country.
• The estimate for drunken driving was not available for India because either the percentage of total deaths due to alcohol consumption in the country was not reported or calculations were found to be unstable.
• India accounts for almost 10% of all crash-related deaths, while accounting for only 1% of the world’s vehicles.

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