Road accidents caused by driver's negligence

• There were 1.25 million road traffic deaths globally in 2013.
• About 4.6 millions more sustaining serious injuries and living with long-term adverse health consequences. 
• Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death among young people, and the main cause of death among those aged 15–29 years.
• Road traffic injuries are currently estimated to be the ninth leading cause of death across all age groups globally, and are predicted to become the seventh leading cause of death by 2030.
• Lower gas prices and and increased motor-vehicle mileage combined with risky activities like speeding and driving while texting is proving deadly for American drivers in 2016, 6% more than 2015.
• The cost of motor-vehicle deaths, injuries, and property damage in 2016 was more than $432 billion, including losses in wages and productivity, medical expenses, property damage, employer costs and administrative expenses.
• Driving is a safety concern. But that hasn't stopped many from speeding, texting, or driving while impaired by alcohol, prescription medication, or marijuana.
• In India, Over 1,37,000 people were killed in road accidents in 2013.
• One road accident death every 4 minutes.
• 16 children die on Indian roads daily.
• Drunken driving is one of the leading causes of road fatalities.
• 1,214 road crashes occur every day in India.
• Two wheeler's account for 25% of total road crash deaths.
• 377 people die every day, equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every day.
• Top 10 Cities with the highest number of Road Crash Deaths (Rank –Wise): (1) Delhi (City) (2) Chennai (3) Jaipur (4) Bengaluru (5) Mumbai (6) Kanpur (7) Lucknow (8) Agra (9) Hyderabad and (10) Pune.

Top ten causes of road crashes:

1. Distracted Driving: The number one cause of car accidents is the distracted driving. A distracted driver is a motorist that diverts his or her attention from the road, usually to talk on a cell phone, send a text message or eat food.
2. Speeding: Many drivers ignore the speed limit. Speed kills, and traveling above the speed limit is an easy way to cause a car accident. The faster you drive, the slower your reaction time will be if you need to prevent an auto accident.
3. Drunk Driving: Driving under the influence of alcohol causes car accidents every day, that can be avoided. Always use a designated driver if you go out and drink.
4. Reckless Driving: Reckless drivers who speed, change lanes too quickly or tailgate before causing a car accident. Reckless drivers are often impatient in traffic so be sure to take extra care around aggressive drivers.
5. Rain: Car accidents happen very often in the rain because water creates slick and dangerous surfaces for cars, trucks, and motorcycles and often causes automobiles to spin out of control or skid while braking. To avoid a car accident, drive extra careful when it rains.
6. Running Red Lights: Drivers that run red lights, run the risk of causing wrongful death because they often cause side-impact collisions at high speeds. To avoid a car accident, look both ways for oncoming cars as you approach a green light.
7. Running Stop Signs: Stop signs should never be ignored, but when they are, serious car accidents are often the result. Each year, thousands of car accidents occur because one driver ran a stop sign. Many rollover accidents and side-impact car accidents result from drivers that run stop signs. You should always look both ways when proceeding through a stop sign.
8. Teenage Drivers: Teenagers aren’t often known for their carefulness. When teen drivers hit the roads they don’t always know what to do and that lack of experience ends up causing car accidents.
9. Night Driving: Driving at night nearly doubles the risk of a car accident occurring. When you can’t see what’s up ahead you don’t know what to anticipate as you drive towards it. As the sun goes down, your awareness of the road and cars around you must go up.
10. Design Defects: No product is ever made perfectly, and cars are no different. Automobiles have hundreds of parts, and any of those defective parts can cause a serious car accident. Many automakers have had problems with design defects in the past and rollover accidents and unintended acceleration results in crashes.

AP Minister Dr P Narayana’s son Nishith, 23, and his friend were killed when their SUV crashed into a metro rail pillar in Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad in the early hours of May 10, 2017. Police said that it was a very high-speed crash as the front portion of the white Mercedes Benz SUV crumbled due to the impact. Nishith and his friend Raja Ravi Chandra apparently went out for a late night ride after heavy showers accompanied by high speed winds lashed the city. Police said that the mishap occurred near a bend on Jubilee Hills 36 where the SUV rammed into Metro pillar number 9. They suspect that the vehicle could be travelling at around 140 kmph even though the indicator in the speedometer reading after the accident pegged the speed at 205 kmph. The duo were wearing seat belts and the air bags opened up but could not save their lives. The Mercedes G63 AMG is an expensive SUV priced more than ₹ 2.03 crore and comes loaded with some of the world's best safety features including dual front, side and window airbags, pelvis bags, ABS, brake assist, ESP, adaptive brake, hill start assist and many more. Since the vehicle was at high speed and heavy, its momentum was very high causing severe impact. The speed of the vehicle, the curve of the road, poor visibility, heavy rain and drowsiness could all be the reasons. They were not drunk, postmortem report revealed. Who ever is the driver, is totally at fault, and nothing else.

My View:

In 1960's road accidents death rate was extremely high in US and people used to subscribe to 'fatalistic attitude' philosophy. The committee headed by Surgeon General dismissed the 'fatalistic attitude' as unacceptable non sense and recommended 20 year action plan with budget of $20 billion ($200 billion at today's PPP) to be spent towards education, awareness creation, increased safety measures, increased safety features for vehicles, stringent driving license norms and many more. Thereafter road accidents death rate gradually got reduced to less than 1/10th of 1960's levels. In India, at the present pace of improving our safety norms, we will able able catch up to US levels only after 50-60 years. Until then people have to protect themselves against their own mistakes, bad roads and adventurous & ill educated drivers and bear with avoidable deaths resulting in agonies to families.