Global Road Safety Week: UN urges drivers to slow down

NEW DELHI: Every four minutes a life is lost due to road accidents in India. In 2015, more than 1.5 lakh people lost their lives due to road accidents in India. According to any road safety experts, the single most important contributor to road fatalities around the world is poor speed selection, commonly interpreted as the use of inappropriate vehicle speeds, over speeding or exceeding lawful speed.

Urging citizens across the globe to drive slow, UN has kick-started its fourth edition of Road Safety Week campaign.

"Speed is at the core of the global road traffic injury problem," WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan said in a news release issued on the eve of the week, which runs from 8 to 14 May.


With this year's theme being Save Lives: #SlowDown, the UN health agency's findings suggest that a 5% cut in average speed can result in a 30% reduction in the number of fatal road accidents.

Here's an interactive data visualization on every road accidents in India.

Last year, a United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) study found that Indian economy takes a 3% hit every year due to road traffic accidents, which is over $58,000 million in terms of value. How so? Death of a young earning member of a family due to a crash indirectly affects the economic growth of a society.

By raising awareness to curb dangerous driving behaviours, WHO aims for a 50% reduction in the absolute number of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2020, under its Sustainable Development Goals target.

Data visualization: Hemal Sheth