New Delhi: A data-based approach can help reduce, even eliminate, fatal road accidents. It has worked globally and will work in India also. It has to work, because 1,53,972 people died on Indian roads in 2021. The number has been rising steadily, according to the report of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, from 1,51,113 in 2019 and 1,31,714 in 2020.
Several factories are involved and contributing to a road accident. Often only one or two critical factors are taken into account and others are neglected. Road accidents keep on increasing for want of a targeted data approach to reduce them. The US, Germany, and Japan have their data collecting bodies for road safety. India also has a similar body known as RASSI ( Road Accident Sampling System, India).
RASSI integrates the data to look at the root cause of a crash holistically. It has a consortium with key OEMs like Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, and research organisations. The introduction of Bharat NCAP gives a big hope for the country in its drive to decrease road accident fatalities to near zero..
Rohan Gowardhan, Head – Road Safety & Forensic Investigations, J P Research India, discussed several contributing factors for road accidents and the ways to prevent them at an ETAuto Webinar on Automotive Safety. . “Data-based approach is what we promote, it has worked globally, will work in India too,” he said.
People have realized the significance of road safety post-COVID. Now OEMs and the Union government have joined hands to provide passengers not only comfort while riding but also safety while driving the car and to avoid any fatal accident on the road, Gowardhan said.
The facets of data
The data is evaluated by collecting samples of each type of crash to determine the whole scenario behind the crash be it from expressways, national highways, district or village roads, other regions at different weather conditions, and so on.
Data has different facets and their collection should follow a step-by-step system. “The first step involves a proper vehicle and site examination. Data should be collected completely from these two components as they form the core of any accident.”
The second step is to understand the victim’s point of view of what happened through the victim’s interview. Following that, medical reports are collected to see what injuries occupants usually sustain in a crash. Then these crashes are reconstructed and analysed for the injuries sustained by the occupant.
“Once this data is collected and analysed, we move on to the next part which is understanding how each factor has contributed to a crash,” Gowardhan said.
The crash is further divided into three phases: pre-crash, crash, and post-crash phase. These are broken down into three parts: human contributors, vehicle contributors, and infrastructure contributors.
“What we get is a three by 3×3 matrix where each factor is organized and set so that to understand where each stakeholder should focus upon this helps in understanding what each person can do, what is in their control, and what is not in their control,” he added.
Road accidents should not be measured on an individual basis but there are multiple contributing factors to it.
RASSI has mentioned some common reasons behind road accidents, like speeding, driver dozing, overtaking, making a turn without indication, and abiding by red lights for human factors. “Many drivers steer the vehicle first and then apply brakes, which might lead to accidents,” he said.
However, the infrastructure of roads and the quality of vehicles also play important roles.
Another underlying reason is policy making, he said with RASSI many OEMs are now doing technical analysis of their vehicles to provide safety. They use RASSI’s data and make vehicles safer for passengers.
The data usage helps the OEMs to improve the quality of vehicles. “These are the technical analyses and publications using Rasi data where some OEMs have designed systems using active safety systems. Evaluating active safety systems where there is a potential improvement of the passenger car front design, reducing injuries for vulnerable road users, or testing autonomous braking systems, benefit estimation of ESC or under and protection devices,” Gowardhan said.
