An analysis of road accidents by Prof Reich and Nantulya from Harvard paints a grim reality of this epidemic. The developing countries (read poor and middle-income countries) have over 80 per cent of the population of the world and possess nearly 40 per cent of the vehicles, but suffer 85 per cent of the deaths and disabilities from road mishaps. According to the researchers, there are various reasons for these disproportionate statistics. These include the relatively quick and disproportionate growth of motor vehicles, relentlessly encouraged by the car industry, disproportionate to the load roads can take and the poor maintenance of these vehicles. They have specifically mentioned that in India, the number of four-wheeler motor vehicles increased by 23 per cent between 1990 and 1993 and it is increasing every year.

Nearer home, a 10-year analysis of accidents in Chandigarh appearing in a local daily some time ago made a telling point.

Even with its wide open and reasonably well-maintained roads, the city saw 870 deaths on the roads in a decade, with a majority of them between the prime ages of 20 to 60. During last year itself, there were 118 deaths in road mishaps and nearly 500 persons were injured. This amounts to a death every third day.

Medical handling of crash victims is far from satisfactory. Even in the Chandigarh area, including Panchkula and Mohali, where the per capita number of doctors is the highest and there are three well-run hospitals, medical aid is not necessarily the best. The time taken between the accident and reaching the hospital is critical and that is a very important lacuna in providing medical aid to the victims. The procedural wrangles, public fear of getting involved in a police case or indifference delay crucial help.

There are no good mobile ambulance services and well-run trauma centres available. It is unfortunate that even a premier institute like the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi has not yet been able to establish such a centre.

A trauma centre has been sanctioned for the PGI at Chandigarh, but it is still on the drawing board and one hopes that it will see the light of day soon.

In fact, we need small but effective trauma centres on busy highways like the GT Road, where a mobile police vehicle/ambulance should be able to quickly transport victims to a nearby trauma centre. Unfortunately, scores of road mishap victims are referred to the PGI from the four neighbouring states, thus overloading this premier institute.

Ironically, everybody seems to believe that accidents are horrible things which happen to other people and they won’t be involved in one. But that is a false sense of security. Even in the developed countries, with all precautionary measures, an adult has 1 per cent chance of dying in a road accident in his lifetime.

Why is it that a murder disturbs society and the Press (rightly) pursues the incident relentlessly till the culprit is found? Why is it that lack of care for a poor heart or cancer patient is highlighted and he evokes sympathy and help, while victims of road accidents beget only indifference?

We should try to learn from the countries which have gone through this experience. There are a number of big towns in the world which have applied self-regulatory restrictions on the number of vehicles plying on the roads. Singapore is perhaps one of the best examples of this with the number of vehicles having been restricted by various financial and legal regulations. A heavy tax is imposed at the time of buying a car itself and a fairly high toll is levied for entering the central area of the city.

Experts in the field need to think how we can improve our situation.