PANAJI:
While India largely ignores children’s safety on its roads, Panaji has proved to be an exception, with a majority (63 percent) of its respondents stating that they felt safe with their children’s pedestrian movement on the city’s roads.
This was the finding of ‘Study on Rear Seat-Belt Usage and Child Road Safety in India’, a research report by Nissan India and SaveLIFE Foundation. Released by Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, on 11 January 2019 in New Delhi, the report marks Nissan India’s data-driven intervention in India’s road safety crisis, which is currently responsible for 53 crashes and 17 deaths every hour. #HaveYouClickedToday, Nissan India’s corporate social responsibility initiative is taking a message of road safety, with a special focus on child safety to citizens across India.
Commenting on the initiative, Thomas Kuehl, President, Nissan India, said, “While there have been various initiatives undertaken to raise awareness around road safety in India, the importance of wearing rear seat belts has been completely neglected. At Nissan, it is our vision to enrich people’s lives and through this initiative, we aim to raise awareness around the usage of rear seat belts. Our strategic partnership with SaveLIFE Foundation and SHARP will set a strong base to bring attention towards this important issue. The first phase of our campaign will focus on reaching out and educating over 200k children in 240 schools across 12 cities on usage of rear seat belts and road safety.”
The city’s perceptions of children’s pedestrian movement were in contrast with the survey’s national findings, where in a majority (60 percent) of respondents across five cities considered children’s movement across roads unsafe. Parents were also asked about safety measures in school zones.
More than 90 percent people in Panaji said there were road signs informing people of the presence of the school. Panaji also ranked highest(93.8 percent) in designated speed limits around schools. Panaji parents also ranked second-highest (at 88 percent) in their willingness to ask for a law to mandate the use of child seat in 4-wheelers.
Commenting on the National Study, Piyush Tewari, Founder and CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation, noted, “This report documents, for the first time in India, the concerning state of child safety on our roads and the public’s perception and expectation regarding the usage of rear seat belts. High road crash fatality cannot be accepted as the norm. It is high time that basic provisions such as child helmets, safety measures in school zones, child seats, special training for school bus and van drivers, and adult accountability be made mandatory across the country. We look forward to the government’s help in enabling a change in mindset at a national level.”
Road safety proactiveness was also visible in the city’s enforcement. At 59 percent, parents in Panaji felt that the enforcement in slow traffic zones (schools, children parks etc) was ahead of the national average of 36.8 percent. Perhaps this is why a majority of the city’s parents (76.1 percent) showed greater trust in school authorities in providing safe and secure transport facilities. No Panaji adolescents were found to have been caught or fined by the police for underage driving, in contrast with national findings, wherein 5.7 percent of adolescents had been caught or penalised for the same.
The research for the report was conducted by research firm MDRA. The 11-city study recorded responses through 6,306 face-to-face interviews, 100 in-depth expert interviews, two focused group discussions and on-site observations to gauge compliance of CBSE School Bus guidelines as well as rear seat belt use.
