Better be Mister Late Than to Be Late Mister!

Ouch...screech...halt...crash...screams...death!
Life is a vale of tears and a drama of pain.

India is one of the world's busiest and populous nations in the world, in terms of road traffic. The rapid increase in the number of cars has resulted in congestion on roads and traffic jams which in turn has taken a toll on commuters. In addition, high speed driving, underage driving, restlessness, lack of discipline, patience and driving under the influence has resulted in road rages, deaths and injuries. 

An accident survey estimated that around 3,00,000 accidents occur every year on Indian roads. Around 50 Lakh people were severely injured and killed in road accidents over the past decade. Recently, India ranked first in the number of road deaths across 199 countries. This issue of traffic congestion is not only an issue in India, but it is also a trending affair in the other countries around the world too. Around 1.35 million individuals around the world die each year as a result of road traffic accidents. According to a report, in 2016 around 1,50,000 individuals left their homes but never returned because of some accident that cost their lives.

The head of the Indian Road Safety Campaign has rightly quoted that “Road fatalities are not connected with fate or something that is inevitable. By taking engineering measures, enforcing traffic laws and making vehicles safer, we would be able to conquer the issue of traffic congestion in India.”

India has adopted various comprehensive and intelligent traffic management systems which better manage the local traffic conditions and for commuters to be ahead of demanding and unpredictable traffic situations. Traffic collection system, traffic video analytics system: a robust motion detector, Automatic Number Plate Recognition, Red Light Violation Detection and speed enforcement are some of the systems acquired by our nation. These systems use video surveillance hardware and software applications to address planning and enforcement rules which is the primary objective of traffic management with context to India. These systems are a real-time 24x7 city surveillance solution.

The Red-Light Violation Detection system is one of the best red light compliance systems which is based on video and includes an overview camera. The overview camera displays the entire infringement scenario and the picture of the number plate of the offending vehicle.

The Speed Enforcement System is a speed violation monitoring system based on video that calculates the speed of the vehicle and records the image of the offending vehicle's number plate. 
These intelligent systems also notify the date, time and location of the offence to the officials which help them to reach out to the place in short time. 

Still, many, often draw the conclusion that rules are for fools and just because of this ruining mindset of people, road transport has become a significant developmental problem, a public health issue, and a leading cause of death and injury worldwide.

The National Institute of Emergency Medicine reported that more than 20 percent of patients requiring the service of ambulance have died on their way to the hospital just because of the delays caused due to traffic congestion and disobliging drivers and motorists on the road. Many of the uncooperative drivers like us often fall into the wrong mindset and suspect that the ambulances that hurry around with their siren’s ON do not really carry a patient in need of immediate medical attention. But the real true fact behind this is that even though no patient is on board, an ambulance with its siren ON is certainly heading to pick up a patient. 

I personally was very tired of hearing so many emergency cases being delayed, patients in critical condition dying, road congestion and accident cases every day in the newspaper and TV channels.

So, after doing a lot of research on this topic, I came up with a sustainable, holistic traffic management strategy for emergency services.
I have designed a lifesaving, environment friendly and astute traffic lights network named Beacon Aid which will respond to the traffic and emergency situations to give way to emergency services and control the traffic lights based on the quantum of traffic. This will result in saving lives of many, less traffic congestion on the main road and most importantly saving precious time. Hence, reducing the number of accidents that occur on a daily basis on the Indian roads.

Quite recently, the government also initiated various challenges, awareness activities and developed services and products like AmbiVan to provide well-equipped, effective, and technologically efficient ambulance services in emergency situations as fast as possible. This device uses the new automatic accident detection technology in compliance with the speed parameters of the person in the car. They also initiated an e-commerce website SafeKart which provides well-researched safety equipments with better safety standards at reasonable rates.

Apart from this, another very impactful contributing factor for traffic congestion is the high speed at which we drive our vehicles.
People in the mad craze for speed, their over possessive attitude with their cars, their anger are responsible for all kinds of brutal and inhumane accidents.

There is this one accident that took place right in front of my eyes and I cannot forget that. In 2019, I had gone to Chandigarh with my father and we had stopped on a busy road to get some snacks for the afternoon. Waiting in a ‘dhaba’ along the roadside, I saw a bus dashing past the narrow road at a very high speed, and just behind it was a car following it and with what it looked, the car driver wanted to take his revenge and overtake the bus. Sometimes we need to understand that haste makes waste and the speed limit laws are designed with the only motive of protecting every driver and passenger on the road. The anger and rush between the car and bus driver had a huge and disastrous impact on the travelers and vehicles around them. In this unnecessary haste, the vehicle coming from the opposite direction collided straight into the car and turned upside down. This happened in a matter of seconds and nobody could visualize what had happened. Four people in the car were killed as they bumped into the car really badly. Some travelers in the bus were also injured and very critical but were taken to the nearest hospital for help. The fight between the bus and car driver over petty, unrealistic things, harmed, and endangered the lives of the many innocent travelers out there. This was the most savage, brutal and heart-rending spectacle that I have ever seen in my life. Those who drive at high speeds think it makes them look cool and it may seem pleasant to them, but these violators do not pay any heed to the consequences of their irresponsible act.

Experts from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur are working on a bamboo clone crash barrier, which is an innovative, cost-effective road safety solution to bring down fatalities and mishaps on roads. Their basic design is to install five feet fencing of the bamboo deep into concrete slabs which would be held together by strong coir ropes. Crash barriers are designed to prevent cars from driving off highways and if there is an accident, the barrier will cushion the impact and to the possible extent, reduce the risk of fatality, thus protecting lives at the same time.

It is on us to either drive at a sophisticated pace or fly into hell.
Remember, the faster your speed, the harder is the impact,
So, let us stop accidents before THEY STOP US!
Let us leave sooner, drive slower and live longer.

Tip for the day, yield the right way – Speed no doubt thrills, but it also kills.