SC Panel lashes out on Centre, States over road safety

The Supreme Court appointed panel on road safety, headed by former Supreme Court judge KS Radhakrishnan, also having former secretary in Surface Transport Ministry and TERI fellow S Sundar and former Chief Scientist of Central Road Research Institute Dr Nishi Mittal has said, "India has the dubious distinction of leading the world in road related accidents and deaths".

The panel has also questioned the data on deaths due to road accidents due to discrepancy in data published by States and Centre. The panel said, "as per the figures published by the (Union) Ministry of Road Transport and Highway, the number of persons killed in road accidents in the year 2013 was 1,37,572.” It added, "The accuracy of the data published by the government of India is questionable since the data submitted by the state government to the committee shows the number of deaths as 1,42,011."

The panel added that as on date, there was no single methodology being used to collect data, leading to discrepancies. The panel also identified no cooperation or coordination between various ministries like Health, Education and transport in addressing the issues of road safety.

The panel, which completed a year on May 1 told the media that there were serious lapses on part of both, the Centre and States regarding road safety. The panel added that there is a need to identify accident prone zones and map them, something that has not been done till date.

You may read more of our coverage on road safety here.