Page 60 - TT mag Oct-Nov -Digital

SMART MOBILITY 2018

Solutions for changing driver

behaviour and safer highways

“It has always been about keeping people
safe and getting people home alive”,

stated Ravin Mirchandani, Chairman,
Ador Powertron who was part of the
opening session on Highways at the

Driving Smart Mobility Conference

he situations we have in our that 90% fatalities occur in low- and Kerala. Each of these has unique driver
country demand resilient middle-income countries, even though behaviours and road safety challenges
and robust road safety less than 50% vehicles operate in and one common solution will not be
products and solutions. these economies, Traffic accidents able to result in any reduction in the
TWe have a unique set will kill approximately two million death toll.
of challenges on Indian roads people every year by 2020. In order to In the mid 1970s, to reduce road
that are vastly different from road address this, we can not simply copy fatalities, Australia focussed on
circumstances globally. Safety on our paste a global enforcement solution two things, Alcohol and Speed. The
roads today is impacted by speeding, and expect it to work. moment alcohol breathalysers were
driving under the influence of alcohol If we look at the share of accidents introduced, road fatalities started
and drugs, traffic management on the roads in India, a third is on dropping exponentially. In India too,
systems that are not geared for Indian national highways, a third onstate our enforcement authorities have
conditions, lack of training on driver highways and a third on city roads. introduced breathalysers; however,
behaviour and also poor infrastructure. This indicates that our problems are the specifications we have adopted
Safety is also impacted by regulations complex. require breathalysers to have
that are not clearly defined, training, If we further analyse fatality data significant electronics including inbuilt
road specifications and finally the generated by the various states, it cameras and printers. These also
intent of such regulations. The intent becomes evident that states with need to be calibrated regularly which
always needs to be about changing better infrastructure tend to have a requires lab skills typically not available
driver behaviour so as to ameliorate higher rate of accidents. Tamil Nadu to a remote highway police team.
safety on our roads and get people which has excellent road infrastructure Ador offers Alcoliser breathalysers
home alive. also has the highest road toll in the which aim to address this unique
Our challenges are unique; country, contributing to14.9% of Indian challenge. They don’t need
flooding, traffic jams, using roads the accidents in India. Just five states to be calibrated by police, and are
weddings & as markets and a lack of contribute over 50% of road fatalities robust and resilient – capable of being
proper communication to commuters in India – Tamil Nadu, Madhya dropped on a concrete road from a
on hazzards. It is interesting to see Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and height of two meters. Further, they

60 October-November ’18 / TrafficInfraTech www.trafficinfratech-com-500653.hostingersite.com