Sadak Suraksha: Aware, Alert, Avoid Accidents!

My student, Anargh, was a promising table tennis player, and we hoped that he would definitely secure a gold medal at the university level for the college. But unfortunately, one day, just 200 metres away from the college gate, he had a severe scooter accident and was critically injured on his head. He had to fight for his life for many months and miraculously survived. Five years on, Anargh is able to walk but with severe constraints, and is not yet able to speak coherently, nor is he able to pursue his sports.

Why did he have such a severe accident?

1. He did not wear a helmet.

2. He was over speeding and lost his balance.

I, too, was a victim of a scooter accident on my return from a long trip to Trivandrum. But I did not sustain any serious head injury as I was wearing my helmet and I had worn it fittingly well. 

In the last one decade of guiding an educational institution, I had the bitter experience of witnessing the death of eleven of my students. Six out of them were victims of road accidents, almost all of them avoidable had the victims taken adequate precautions. 

Global statistics reveal that every 23 seconds someone loses their life on the road! As per the W.H.O. website, Death on the Roads, of the 1.36 million who lost their lives on the road this year, 4 lakh were car users, 3.12 lakh were pedestrians, 3.8 lakh were motorcyclists and 40,000 were cyclists. Initiated by Brigette Chaudhry, the founder of Road Peace, in 1993, the U.N. dedicates the third Sunday of November to remember road traffic victims worldwide.

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