A car crash test facility by the end of the current financial year and a mandatory crash test for all car manufacturers in the next couple of years — this is what the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has lined up as its plan of action against the backdrop of recent surveys revealing how five popular small cars by Indian auto majors failed to make the cut in the crash tests.
“Worldwide safety care of the rear seat passenger is taken by the car manufacturers and most of the cars do not ignite till the passengers in the rear seat wear the seat belt. Here even making helmet mandatory for pillion and women riders has become difficult,” said Vijay Chibber, secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH).He was speaking at a seminar on Role of Corporates in Road Safety organised by the International Road Federation (IRF), a Geneva-based global body working for safer roads world-wide.
“To ensure vehicle safety a car crash test facility will come up by end of current financial year. We are sure to face resistance from automobile manufacturers but we have to make the crash test mandatory in the next couple of years for launch of new cars as it the need of the hour,” Chibber said.Chibber said that all strong efforts made by the government to make severe safety norms for vehicles have met with resistance from the industry. “Recent move by MoRTH and Ministry of Industry to introduce ABS brakes in two wheelers was shunned by the two wheeler manufacturers asking for couple of more years to introduce it,” said Chibber.
India has the highest incident of fatal road accidents in the world and accounts for 10 per cent of the total 1.3 million road accident fatalities worldwide despite having only one per cent of the world’s vehicle population. About 1.38 lakh people were killed in around 4.9 lakh road accidents in the year 2012.Sources said in a bid to meet higher mileage and low pricing, Indian car makers are compromising on safety standards. The estimates of the Planning Commission and the World Bank have put social cost of accidents between 2 to 3 per cent of the GDP every year.
“The nation is losing more than `1 lakh crore annually because of road accidents and this is besides the loss of human life and trauma,” said Chibber adding “The Government has set a five-year target for reversing the accident growth rate to negative”.