News papers in every metro city in India give a daily report of people killed and injured in traffic accidents. As a response to this heightened awareness NGOs have come up in many cities to deal with this increasing urban epidemic of death and destruction. Police departments also hold road safety weeks, painting competitions, zero tolerance drives and demand greater powers to fine and punish. This has gone on for the last two decades. But, the killing and the maiming continues unabated.

This is not surprising. International experience in controlling road accidents shows that the policies and methods promoted in our cities have not been successful anywhere else either. The first successes in reducing road traffic accidents were reported in western Europe and the USA in the early seventies. From the nineteen thirties to the nineteen fifties they exhorted people to improve their behaviour, school education programmes and publicity programmes were promoted. Fines and punishments for traffic violations made more stringent and enforcement "drives" launched with great fanfare. But the fatality graph kept rising.

In the sixties some path breaking studies were published. The basic conclusion of these studies from United States, Europe and Australia was that virtually all approaches based solely on education and/or persuasion are ineffective. They found that the biggest mistake in the developed world during the first half of the century was a complacent reliance on completely ineffective educational approaches and targeting of safety drives on issues which were not associated with accident causation. They instead suggested that it was important to analyse accident data in detail, find out the most common factors associated with the majority of accidents, assess what changes can be made easily in the short term to roads, vehicles and laws, plan changes for the long term, focus on violations which result in accidents, and not expect behaviour change without changing designs and police enforcement policies. This approach has resulted in a continuous decrease in accident rates in those countries in the past twenty five years.

In contrast, I don't now of many studies done in any city of India in which road accident data have been analysed according to scientific norms in vogue around the world. Not a single city in India has a well formulated scientific process through which data gets analysed according to methods which are likely to be beneficial. To the best of my knowledge, no police department in India has a collaboration with road safety experts on a continuing basis.

So, how do we start? First of all, we should select practical measures which are known to work in all situations and apply them locally. Second, we need to set up systems for collection and analysis of road accident data on a scientific basis suited for our socio-economic conditions. Then, these data can be used to fine tune policies and set up long term safety programmes.

Examples of policies which work internationally are, compulsory use of helmets and headlights by two-wheeler riders, making small vehicles like bicycles and carts more conspicuous by use of reflectors on all sides and painting them yellow or orange, use of seatbelts by car occupants, and limiting vehicle speeds below 50 km/h on urban arterial roads. Helmet use is mandated by the Motor Vehicle Act in India. However, each state has to notify it for it to be enforced. Most of the states in India have been criminally negligent in not doing so. Studies done in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore show that a vast majority of two-wheeler riders and parents of teenagers are in favour of the law. The law is very easily enforceable. This measure alone will reduce deaths by 20-30% among two-wheeler riders.

When two-wheeler riders keep their headlights on during the day time, it does not help them, but it makes them more conspicuous for other vehicle drivers. This measure was found to be effective in Europe almost two decades ago in reducing fatalities by 10%. Malaysia and Singapore have also introduced this law. Studies from Malaysia show a 15% reduction in deaths. The measure does not cost anything and can be implemented tomorrow. Helmet and daytime headlight use by two-wheelers if enforced throughout the country may save 4,000 -5,000 lives and 60,000-100,000 serious injuries annually. If all bicycles in India had reflectors on wheels, in front and the back, and if all of them were painted yellow or orange, they would be much more visible. This measure would save another few thousand lives, would not cost much, and can be implemented easily.

Fifty percent or more of road deaths in cities involve pedestrians. A pedestrian hit by a car at 30 km/h has less than 10% chance of dying, whereas this probability increases to more than 80% at 50 km/h. This why all European cities are limiting vehicle speeds to less than 30 km/h in residential and shopping areas by use of well designed speed breakers, narrowing streets, and encouraging dead end roads. On arterial roads speeds are limited to 50 km/h with light controlled pedestrian crossings at frequent intervals. We are encouraging speeds by provision of flyovers and increasing distances between traffic lights. This can only result in increase in accidents. Underground and over ground pedestrian facilities do not work unless accompanied by escalators and ensuring safety of women and children.

Seat belt use by car occupants decreases deaths by 20-30%. But no where in the world do a majority of people use seat belts unless the same is made compulsory. However, this measure will help car users only who constitute less than 5 percent of total road deaths in India.

There are a host of other measures which can be applied after we set our priorities on the basis of what our data tell us. It is high time our policy makers and vehicle manufacturers gave more importance to science in road safety rather than PR for road safety.