Indian government announces free medical treatment for accident victims
The Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) is set to offer free medical treatment to all injured accident victims. This move will be effective within the next three to four months. Although this provision is part of the amended Motor Vehicle Act 2019 (MVA2019), it has not been implemented in many states. The ministry's goal is to ensure this life-saving measure is available nationwide.
Multi-pronged strategy to reduce accidents by 50%
Anurag Jain, Secretary of MoRTH, highlighted that India has the highest number of road accident deaths worldwide. To cut accidents by 50% by 2030, the ministry developed a multi-faceted approach based on the 5Es of road safety: Education, Engineering, Enforcement, and Emergency Care. Road safety is now a crucial aspect of road design during the planning stage, and the e-DAR Project has been launched to create a central database for reporting, managing, and analyzing road accident data across the country.
Over speeding accounts for 71.2% of road accidents in 2022
In 2022, Indian police departments recorded a total of 461,312 road accidents, leading to 168,491 fatalities and 443,366 injuries. A MoRTH report revealed that over speeding was responsible for 71.2% of all road accidents last year. Other contributing factors included driving on the wrong side (5.4%), running traffic lights, and drunken driving. The implementation of cashless medical treatment for accident victims is expected to offer much-needed assistance in emergency situations.
