Bengaluru, 18 May, 2016: The state and central governments should wake up to the increasing number of road deaths involving youngsters. The Government of India should take strong steps to pass and implement comprehensive and stringent road safety law to protect millions of lives in this regard. – This is what the child rights and health experts, who met in city on Wednesday, had to demand.
In a press conference organized by the Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KSCPCR) in association with the Institute of Public Health (IPH), a health NGO and Red Cross Society, experts said 20 children are killed every day in India due to road crashes.
Dr. Kripa Alva, head of KSCPCR said the state of Karnataka, which happens to be the fourth worst state for number of road deaths in the country, also accounts for considerable number of children deaths in road accidents. “But with stronger legislations things can be changed both in the state and nationally. To save the lives of children and the productive youth of our nation we must act now. We urge the government of India to pass and implement a comprehensive and stringent road safety law to protect millions of young lives,” she added.
Dr. Pragati Hebbar, Advocacy Officer, IPH said in the past decade about 1 million people have died and over 5 million people have been injured or disabled due to road crashes. “The figures of road crashes and deaths are alarming and lots need to be done to curb this preventable cause of death and morbidity to prevent a huge drain on Indian economy. Road crashes are estimated to cause a loss of 3% of our GDP,” she added.
Mr. S Ashok Kumar Shetty, the General Secretary of the Karnataka chapter of the Red Cross highlighted that the Karnataka government has taken several positive steps such as Harish Scheme, Bike Ambulances, and notifying state road safety policy, mandating helmet use for pillion rider and providing schemes for medical relief to road crash victims. “Having set a positive example, it would be apt to see Karnataka government now urging for and supporting comprehensive legislation on road safety at national level,” he added.
Noted Spine Surgeon Dr. Subodh Shetty also participated in the event and said all the stakeholders should work hard to bring in a very comprehensive and stringent national road safety law and the same should be stressed at an upcoming high-level meeting of union ministers of various state governments in Bengaluru in coming days.
The above mentioned health experts have written a letter highlighting the important points of road safety, to Karnataka transport minister B Ramalinga Reddy and Yoonus Khan, Chairman, Group of Ministers constituted to examine best practices in road safety and road transport sector.