Data on record with the Ministry of Road Transport reveals that speed-breakers in India cause 30 crashes every day. Yes, every single day, there are 30 accidents in India, just because of the speed breakers. And this is not it.
These accidents also kill people. On an average, 9 people die everyday in India just because of speed breaker related accidents. In 2015, 3,409 deaths were reported due to speed-breakers. This means, deaths due to speed breakers in India, is higher than the total road related deaths registered in UK and Australia combined!
Indian roads are the most deadliest in the world. Over 1.47 lakh people lost their lives due to road related accidents in India in 2015. This number for Australia and the UK combined stands at 2,937. The sad part is, authorities in India believe that adding more speed breakers is the solution. But that is not, as per data revealed.
While speed-breakers in India as set to safeguard lives and reduce risks of accidents. But, poor material used, lack of distinctive markings, faulty designs and badly lit roads are to blame for making them more dangerous to users on the road.
Union Minister for Road Transport, Mr. Nitin Gadkari has taken up the matter of building speed-breakers according to stringent laid down norms. Gadkari states that speed-breakers are built randomly with least attention to height, width and without proper markings. These cause manifold constraints to drivers damaging the vehicle and increasing incidents of accident.
Mr Gadkari will be issuing notices to all states to ensure that these regulations are complied with where building of speed-breakers is concerned. He seeks to ensure that speed-breakers are built after properly assessing the spot, taking into account how accident prone the area is and also that these speed-breakers are built according to laid down regulations.
A P Bahadur, a road safety consultant at World Bank offers advice on alternative means such as rumbler strips and 5mm thermoplastic layers rather than ill designed speed-breakers which cause more harm than good.