The Road Transport and Highways Ministry on Monday launched a programme to impart road traffic education in universities as it seeks to halve the number of road accidents by 2022.

The programme has been launched against the backdrop of more than 70 per cent of fatal road crashes in 2017 involving adults in the age group of 18-45. Around 1.47 lakh people lost their lives in 4.7 lakh road crashes in 2017.

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The programme, Road To Safety Towards Responsible Youth’ was launched by the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Mansukh Lal Mandaviya in partnership with Diageo India and the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE).

Addressing the event, Mandaviya said, “In the recent times, we have seen an alarming rise in road fatalities especially with our youth thus making road safety of prime importance for the government. Rash driving, not wearing seat belts, lack of adequate safety measures like not wearing helmets are some of the top factors resulting in high road accidents.”

He said with an aim to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent by 2022 … we are committed to making our vision of safer roads/cities a reality.

“This unique public private partnership attempts to bring a formal and structured training programme for university students as they apply for their learner’s licence. The programme aims to reach over 500 universities across the country in the next 3-5 years; with the first year target being 100 programmes across 50 universities.”

The 4-hour programme is an interactive module led by senior faculty members of IRTE covering varied aspects of responsible driving including defensive driving, ill effects of driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding and wearing of helmets, it said. The programme is a step toward addressing the grave issue of road safety by inculcating behavioural change and creating awareness about responsible driving habits among young adults, the statement noted.

According to industry reports, India accounts for 12.5 per cent (over 1,45,000 fatalities a year) of global road accidents, with one road accident occurring in every four minutes.

Alarmingly, 72 per cent victims involved in such road mishaps are between the age group of 15-44 years with speeding, reckless and drunk driving being the top reason accounting for 1.5 per cent of road traffic accidents and 4.6 per cent of fatalities.

Commenting on the initiative, Abanti Sankaranarayanan, Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs Officer, Diageo India, said, “We are excited to introduce, as part of Diageo’s signature ‘Road to Safety’ campaign, a targeted intervention directed at early education of young drivers as they take to driving on India’s roads. As new drivers, our youth hold the key to India’s safer roads and it is crucial that they understand and imbibe road safety best-practices early.