Road safety is a huge problem in India, where every year more than 1.5 lakh people die in road accidents and more than 5 lakh are severely injured. India, which loses 3% of its GDP to road accidents, has one of the least safe roads in the world. While the first half of 2017 has shown a slight dip in accidents (3%) and fatalities (4.75%), more than 400 people continue to be killed every single day because of road accidents.

India is a signatory to Brasilia Declaration (Nov 2015), and is committed to reduce the number of road accidents and fatalities by 50% by 2020. India can achieve its commitment to United Nations of reducing fatalities by 50% by the year 2020 through passage of MV (A) Bill 2017 and its proper implementation by state governments. The government is far from achieving this target, as the reduction rate touched a mere three percent in 2017.

Mr. Ashim Sanyal COO, Consumer VOICE, New Delhi said, “Every day we are losing precious lives on Indian Roads. Each life is precious and we cannot lose 413 lives every day in preventable road accidents. Strengthen the road safety to reduce fatalities and save 1, 50,785 lives every year should be the priority”.

Consumer VOICE with its state partners is urging parliamentarians to pass the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill in the current budget session which will make a significant impact in reducing the road fatalities/injuries.