Concern raised over increasing road mishaps in country

Mumbai, Feb 20 Concern was raised over increasing road mishaps in country by the participants of a webinar on Road Safety and Insurance conducted by Insurance Institute of India (III) recently.

In spite of several efforts by the government and various organisations the situation on the ground has not improved much with an average of 53 road accidents happening every hour across the country.

India witnesses close to 500,000 road accidents every year resulting in over 150,000 deaths, serious injuries and damage to vehicles and insured losses running into crores of rupees.

A recent World Bank report states that India, with one per cent of the world's vehicles, accounts for 10 per cent of all road crash victims.

ICICI Lombard senior associate vice president Saurabh Jaiswal said that almost 57 per cent vehicles on Indian roads are uninsured and the industry needs to urgently address this issue.

MN Sarma, secretary general of the general industry body, General Insurance Council, spoke about the specific challenges faced by the general insurance industry due to lack of road safety and how even today, compliance to norms regarding compulsory motor insurance policies was still low.

Deepak Godbole, Secretary General of III, in his inaugural address, stated that investing in Road Safety Education need to be understood as a matter of great importance. PN Karmakar of the College of Insurance, flagged the need for improving the country's safety culture through education.

By way of takeaways, this webinar was a step towards creating a better understanding of the challenges faced by various stakeholders. The webinar attempted to flag multiple challenges and discuss some solutions to implement Road Safety and formulate effective collaborative action plans.