[whitewing]

Originally Posted by Stribog

There are many preconceived "notions" that many of us have on road accidents. A few I see often in many threads in this forum itself,

1 - 2 Wheelers are inherently unsafe
2 - The converse, cars are safer
3- Trucks and buses are doombringers

And a lot more.

Thanks for taking the time and collating an interesting set of data. While we may argue that the data quality is bad, I'm sure (my opinion) that some crude data is better than carrying "notions" as you have mentioned.
Looking forward to post 2 on data refuting/supporting the above "notions". In any case our policy makers will base decision on this data.

I carry the notion that cars are safer vs a 2 wheeler on our roads.
And have lot of respect for the NH truckers, they are by far the most disciplined, considerate group of the drivers I see on the roads.

On how you have interpreted the data, shouldn't fatality rate also be juxtaposed with the accessibility to quality medical care facilities?
I presume, the roads are not any safer than earlier times(again, my notion), only that the vehicle safety norms have improved and we have better health care facilities. Especially on the tolled roads, ambulances are usually available and a higher chance of getting timely intervention.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by Indian2003

Where did you get this from? German autobahns do have a general speed limit of 130 km/hour. Only a very few stretches have no speed limits. If I remember right, only 2 or 3.

I think it is not just two or three. I had enjoyed several stretches in the autobahn with no speed limits when I used to drive in Germany during 2004 - 2008. A major share of the autobahn has no speed limits at all, at least from what I remember. Not sure if the norms have changed now. Driving to neighboring countries was less fun, because there were speed limits everywhere.

[Reinhard]

Sorry for deviating a bit - but another "myth" when it comes to accidents on our roads - "its important to urgently move accident victims out from the vehicle or away from the spot of the accident". Most of the first respondents at the spot in India - tend to try to do this - often managing superhuman feats like lifting cars by bare hands as well.

This IMO is a horrible idea & its often best to leave the person in the position resulting from the accident in most cases. Sudden lifts / movements have a high chance of complicating external / internal injuries - especially those to neck. Its best to ensure bracing & solid harness after inspection & then move the victim. People around us tend to be eager to move the hurt people aside into a resting position. The intent is very kind - but execution scares me a lot.

[sarav100]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Sorry for deviating a bit - but another "myth" when it comes to accidents on our roads - "its important to urgently move accident victims out from the vehicle or away from the spot of the accident". Most of the first respondents at the spot in India - tend to try to do this - often managing superhuman feats like lifting cars by bare hands as well.

This IMO is a horrible idea & its often best to leave the person in the position resulting from the accident in most cases. Sudden lifts / movements have a high chance of complicating external / internal injuries - especially those to neck. Its best to ensure bracing & solid harness after inspection & then move the victim. People around us tend to be eager to move the hurt people aside into a resting position. The intent is very kind - but execution scares me a lot.

Yes, you’re absolutely right, and this is possible today with easy accessibility to ambulance service numbers. However, waiting for medical team was a fruitless task back in 90s and early 2000s. Back then, there was simply no infrastructure present for immediate medical assistance. As a result of that me and my family did pick up the accident victims with no knowledge of how to handle the accident victims and dropped them at nearly hospitals. While most of them did survive, some were not so lucky and died on the spot or after reaching Hospital.

Another aspect I’d like to report over here is that hospitals were generally hesitant to perform any emergency procedure on accident victims apart from providing the basic first aid. Whiles the most common reason given by them was that they cannot provide any significant medical aid unless they have police report, some asked for authorisation (using signature) from victim’s family and waited until they physically signed in person.

Now, being on the topic of rate of accidents, from my observation, I do agree with the report that accident fatality/ critical injury rate has definitely dropped over these years.

[luvDriving]

One reason as to why fatalities in two wheeler accidents is less could simply the carrying capacity of the vehicle.

If a car or jeep or tempo traveler or a bus has a fatal accident then the number of victims from this single accident will be more than a similar accident by a two wheeler. So cumulatively I guess the number of fatalities from car accidents will be more than those caused by two wheeler accidents.

Also on the matter of less number of accidents in the time from midnight till 06 am, it can be due to the fact that traffic is significantly less in this time period as compared to day time and hence the accidents will be proportionately lesser.

Just my 2 cents. Thanks for starting this thread.

[Stribog]

Part 2 - (if someone can tell me how to format tables here it would be far more user friendly to read)

While Indian roads are unsafe, they have been exponentially (20 times) worse in the past and despite a burgeoning road network and a rapidly increasing vehicle density, accident and fatality rates have been declining consistently.

Key - Vehicle Density - VD. Fatality Rate - FR.

1970 - VD : 1.18, FR : 103.5 (the 70's must have been seriously a bad time to be on the roads.

1990 - VD : 9.65, FR : 28.3

In 20 years VD went up some 9 times approx, but FR dropped by a fifth.

2010 - VD 27.88, FR : 10.5

2017 - VD 42.95, FR : 5.8

If Bi Decadal trends are maintained, our FR should be down to less than 2-2.5 by 2030 (though given the sheer volume of vehicles and traffic, our volume of accidents and fatalities and injuries will still be top of the list globally)

Moving onto vehicle type then paired to impacting vehicle type, is where we get to some interesting nuggets. Here all data is for 2018 where we have the last fully completed pre Covid numbers.

Key - Total Vehicles (TV), Number of Accidents (NOA), Persons Killed (PK), Persons Injured (PI)

2 Wheelers - TV : 170 Mn, NOA : 1,64,313, PK : 47,560, PI : 1,53,585

Assuming no pillion riders at all, the daily fatality rate for 2 wheelers is 130 / day, of a rider base of some 170 Mn, even accounting for unused vehicles, double counted vehicles etc (for which we have no data), at fully 50%, of some 85 Mn daily riders, 130 are casualities.

Cars / Jeeps / Van (Taxi is also included here but I take that for the total car pop)
- TV : 40 Mn, NOA : 1,13,400, PK : 30,811, PI : 1,23,517

It is telling that with 23% the number of cars as bikes, the NOA is only 20% lesser, but PI is almost the same.

If one were to apply the same proportion to normalise these numbers, this segment should have only NOA - 37,700, PK : 10,938 and PI : 35,000

And here I don't even do the 50% discounting I did for 2 wheelers (again, there is no data on daily usage, so this is just a broad assumption), either apply the assumption or remove it for 2 wheelers and on a per km traveled basis, cars, jeeps and vans are the more unsafe mode (and also the most unsafe) by a long distance.

It is interesting also that vehicles like human drawn carts and animal drawn carts ALSO see 100's of causalities and 1000's of accidents. From an accident to fatality point of view, the most deadliest vehicle on Indian roads is a man drawn cart. 60% of all accidents result in fatalities (given that the 'driver' has no protection at all, it makes logical sense)

Now lets look at "Accident Type"

Hit from Back is the most 2nd common accident. A whopping 19% of NOA and 17% of PK is because of vehicles being hit from behind (which lends credence to speeding being the most common cause?). The most common one at 20% is head on collisions, 20% of NOA, 20% of PK and a whopping 22.5% of PI.

When we are on the road, if it is a divided eway / highway your chances of being in a collission are reduced, and then if you keep your eyes peeled on the rear view mirror at all times, then 56% of all accident causes are eliminated.

Parked Vehicles / Fixed object collisions result in some 6% of all accidents - sleep? Mis judging distances and speed?

8% of all accidents (fatal or non) are caused by those without a valid license.

And on the mantra ATGATT,

Of the 47,000 PK on two wheelers, 43,000 were not wearing HELMETS!

in other words more than 90% of those 2wheeler drivers who were killed were not wearing helmets.

Of the 30,800 killed in cars / jeeps / vans, 24,000 were not wearing a seatbelt.

One small ray of hope here is that the number of car drivers / passengers involved in fatal accidents NOT wearing seat belts is declining year on year but not fast enough.

I don't have data on injuries here as that would be an interesting study but this should be the key to reducing at least fatalities.

brutal enforcement of seatbelt, helmet norms.

Will do a concluding part 3 later this week on impacting vehicle type and summary findings.

[the_real_slager]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Attachment 2189438

https://www.statista.com/chart/16810...-no-roadworks/

Agree to this. I live in Belgium and drive on the Autobahns at least once a month on our trips to Germany for shopping and stuff. There are unlimited speed sections on most parts with the speed being capped at 110kmph when a merge to the highway from a ring or a side road is anticipated.

Regards,
Kiron

[Carpainter]

Originally Posted by Stribog

India has about 170 Mn two wheelers (data is as of 2016), the NSSO survey has updated numbers but I can't source the raw numbers only media reports and I don't trust them. There are 1,64,000 accidents involving 2 wheelers with 45,000 fatalities.

Otoh India has only about 40 Mn cars + jeeps, yet there are 1,13,000 accidents involving them with 31,000 fatalities.

In other words India has only about 1/4th the number of cars and jeeps as 2 wheelers but this segment produces 80% of the fatalities of 2 wheelers.
.

First of all a very nice thread. We'll be able to clear out doubts and myths if any related to road casualties.

The fact that India has 1/4th the number of cars compared to 2 wheelers and yet the number of accidents are high with cars is because most of the highway driving is done in cars and not 2 wheelers. Someone who has a car and a bike would usually take his car for a long road trip on the highway and would use the bike for city runs and running errands. People who don't own cars but own two wheeler usually hire a car for long highway trips unless in an exigency. Only two wheeler enthusiasts and people living on the edge of highways use two wheeler on the highway. Also most of the non fatal accidents within city limits are probably not officially reported. The number of accidents from official data alone cannot determine whether two wheeler is safer than car or not.

[Neversaygbye]

Statistics notwithstanding, as someone who rides a two wheeler and also drives a car, I cannot agree that two wheelers are safer than cars.

The chills, spills (and thrills) are much more on a two wheeler than in a car. However, every small incident on a two wheeler leads to a spill and minor (if not major) injuries.

This is not the case with a car where in most cases a minor incident will lead to mostly superficial damage to the car.

I saw the statistics, but as is mentioned in other posts, am pretty sure that the data is flawed. Every time I've had an accident with my bike, I have been physically injured, and that has hardly been the case with incidents involving my car.

Two wheelers are more dangerous, not just for the rider, but also for other traffic on the road since they tend to weave in and out of traffic and also hog the rightmost lane. We need more of cars and less of two wheelers, but before that we need better roads, more stringent driving tests and more stringent punishment for pedestrians who do not follow traffic rules.

I am actually surprised that no one mentions the role of pedestrians in road safety, as in my experience pedestrians and their lack of consideration for any kind of traffic rules are among the main causes of accidents on Indian roads.

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by Stribog

There are many preconceived "notions" that many of us have on road accidents. A few I see often in many threads in this forum itself,

1 - 2 Wheelers are inherently unsafe
2 - The converse, cars are safer
3- Trucks and buses are doombringers

And a lot more.

Coming up in part 2 (later on the weekend, this will be a multi part series) would be vehicle wise accident and fatality rates. Let us see if the urban legends hold up or remain that, urban legends.

I'm sorry I don't understand what the myths, preconceived notions and urban legends here are.

The risk to rider/passenger safety is inherently higher in a two-wheeler vs. a car. I can't see what there's to argue against this.

Take the below sample from WHO for 2016.

https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/in...f-road-user-(-)



The data is there and it's up to the individual to interpret it.

Ireland has less deaths caused due to motorized two/three wheelers than four-wheelers but that doesn't mean four-wheelers are more riskier than two-wheelers.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by kiku007

I'm sorry I don't understand what the myths, preconceived notions and urban legends here are.

The risk to rider/passenger safety is inherently higher in a two-wheeler vs. a car. I can't see what there's to argue against this.

Take the below sample from WHO for 2016.

https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/in...f-road-user-(-)

Attachment 2191106

The data is there and it's up to the individual to interpret it.

Ireland has less deaths caused due to motorized two/three wheelers than four-wheelers but that doesn't mean four-wheelers are more riskier than two-wheelers.

India is very different from an Ireland given the sheer number of 2 wheelers we have (largest 2 wheeler market iirc).

Absolute numbers will be exceedingly misleading, and have to be normalised.

As clarified above, normalised to the number of vehicles, it is 4 wheelers that have an excessive fatality / accident rate.

2 Wheelers are compared to 4 wheelers, safer when it comes to number of accidents or fatalities or injuries. Add a helmet and fatality rate plummets (though this can be argued for cars also, seatbelts and fatality rates plummet).

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by Stribog

India is very different from an Ireland given the sheer number of 2 wheelers we have (largest 2 wheeler market iirc).

I referred to Ireland to point out the flaw in your theory of arriving at the conclusion that two-wheelers are safer than four-wheelers.

Originally Posted by Stribog

Absolute numbers will be exceedingly misleading, and have to be normalised.

As clarified above, normalised to the number of vehicles, it is 4 wheelers that have an excessive fatality / accident rate.

2 Wheelers are compared to 4 wheelers, safer when it comes to number of accidents or fatalities or injuries. Add a helmet and fatality rate plummets (though this can be argued for cars also, seatbelts and fatality rates plummet).

I'll humbly disagree with the your conclusions.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

I cannot help but wonder, how did the authorities arrive at the conclusion that over speeding caused accidents leading to death. How many speed traps or radar guns have been deployed on the highways? Is any data available for this?

How about non fatal accidents on the highways? How many caused due to lack of lane demarcation, lack or road signs, unpainted speed breakers, road blockages set up by local RTA (without proper signage or reflectors)? Any data available on this?

Regarding your first point, more than 99% of drivers in India overspeed. There is no need for any radar gun to confirm this blatantly evident fact. Have you ever seen an Indian driver slow down when entering a town or intersection or even when a pedestrian is actually crossing the road in front of the vehicle? In fact, most Indian drivers don't even see the speedometer or understand the concept of speed limits. Most never even look at the speed limit signs and change their speed accordingly except on some very rare zones where speed radars are deployed. Regardless of any other factor such as ill designed roads, missing signs etc, the chances of a crash happening and that of it being fatal are drastically reduced by driving slower. The driver would have more time to react. In fact, it is the driver's responsibility to adapt the speed to the road conditions. So if the road is ill designed or poorly marked, it requires even slower driving and greater care. This is not to argue that we shouldn't improve the roads. It simply means that you have to drive according to existing conditions.

[Rohan265]

Originally Posted by Rohan265

the only way we are going to reduce fatalities is by fudging the fatality numbers...

Unfortunately, this has already started.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/93604341.cms

The worse part is that the government's new crash data collection system (IRAD) has been implemented based on this award-winning Tamil Nadu model of reducing crashes.
Accurate crash data is the bedrock of road safety activities in any country. Things won't change for the good unless we sort out our crash data collection methods.