TOI: Expressway has lowest speed limit, highest fatalities: May 29, 2008

EXPRESSWAY HAS LOWEST SPEED LIMIT, HIGHEST FATALITIES

Roads Around The World Show Safety Can Be Achieved Even At Higher Speeds, Say Experts ………Kartikeya I TNN

Mumbai: The Mumbai-Pune Expressway is touted as a world-class high-speed expressway that rivals the best in the world. However, the highway has one of the highest death rates in the worldthis despite the fact that it has the lowest speed limit (80 kmph) of most expressways anywhere else (see box).

The autobahns of Germanythe benchmark that most expressways in the world are measured againsthave a total length of nearly 11,000 km and in 2005 saw 662 deaths. In stark contrast, the 93-km-long Mumbai-Pune Expressway witnessed an average of 300 deaths every year until 2006. While last year the number of fatalities was brought down by tying up with hospitals along the expressway for trauma care, there are still almost 50 mishaps reported on the road every week.

As recently as May 4, the expressway saw a horrific accident in which 16 members of a family were killed when the overcrowded jeep they were travelling in crashed into a trailer and was dragged for seven to eight km as it got stuck in the rear axle.

Though the speed limit on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway is rarely adhered to, deaths on the expressway have been blamed on a number of factors other than just speed, such as tyre bursts, slippery surface during the monsoons and one mishap where a vehicle crashed into a tanker that was watering plants.

It is not the speed that kills, said Nitin Dossa, chairperson of Western India Automobile Association. Rather, it is the basic faults in our system that lead to accidents. Experts add that the prevention of such tragedies may lie in the long-term enforcement of road safety laws and not just curbing the speed at which motorists drive.

Dossa draws attention to the way Regional Traffic Offices (RTOs) hand out driving licences across the country. Even the recommended rudimentary test for getting a license is not carried out properly. Thus, men in their 20s who know little about safe driving find themselves behind the wheels of large commercial vehicles like trailer trucks. These same vehicles turn into killers when driven rashly by these poorly trained drivers, he said.

Auto experts also point out that most commercial vehicles running on roads in India would not pass road-worthiness tests in other countries. They lack even basics, such as functioning tail-lights, working horns or reliable brakes. Thus, no matter what speed they run at, they would still cause an accident, said Dossa. However, no comprehensive study has been done as yet to determine the reasons that top the list for fatalities, experts said.

Transport experts said that by global standards the Mumbai-Pune road would not even qualify as an expressway. In fact, such a low speed limit makes most drivers tend to ignore it and not comply with it at all. Autobahns, for the most part, do not even have a speed limit and cars regularly zip along at over 130 kph. Interestingly, there is a minimum speed limit of 60 kph on an autobahnvehicles going slower than that are considered a hazard and not allowed on the road.

Other expressways around the world have shown that road safety can be achieved even with motorists cruising at high speeds. This requires structural changes that are not in place in India. To achieve global standards of road safety, authorities will have to crack down on a regular basis on drunken driving, overloaded vehicles and not allowing vehicles that do not pass road fitness standards. The answer does not lie in a knee-jerk reaction, where police book dozens of motorists for overspeeding for a few days after a major accident and then again stop bothering.

The police are now booking drivers even for offences such as lane cutting and dangerous overtaking on the highways, said superintendent of the state highway police S S Bansode.

We have launched a concerted drive recognising that various factors cause accidents and the goal now is to get the drivers to follow the rules in every aspect.

HOODWINKING THE LAW ENFORCERS

In many first world countries ways to evade enforcement of speed limits have entered popular culture. One of the most used techniques involves buying a radar detector to seek out police radar signals before one enters an enforcement zone. Observers have pointed out a small-scale arms race ensues, as speeders buy radar detectors of greater technology and police purchase equipment that is harder to detect.

THE FIRST SPEED LIMIT

The first speed limit was the 10 mph (16.1km/h) limit introduced by the Locomotive Act of 1861 (or Red Flag Act) in the United Kingdom. In fact, an 1865 law required a man with a red flag or lantern to walk 50 metres ahead of each vehicle, enforce a walking pace, and warn horse riders and horse drawn traffic of the approach of a self-propelled machine.

Maharashtra has an appallingly high death rate on its roads. In 2006, nearly 11,000 people were killed in 70,000 major and minor accidents across the state.

SPEED LIMITS ON EXPRESSWAYS AROUND THE WORLD

USA 129 kph

China 120 kph

UK 113 kph

France 130 kph

Pakistan 120 kph

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