Road Safety: Let’s Pledge to Follow Rules and Be Safe

#RoadSafetyWeek is observed every January. Here are some startling facts about road accidents in India.

About 400 people die every day on Indian roads. (Photo: Reuters)

About 400 people die on Indian roads every day, making the country notorious for the world’s highest fatalities in road accidents.

It is always devastating to lose a loved one to an accident, and more so when it is due to inefficient or delayed care. And this is exactly why Piyush Tewari founded the SaveLIFE Foundation to bring about better road safety laws in India. Tewari lost his cousin brother to a fatal accident.

<p>The Government’s initiative to spread awareness on Road Safety is welcome but we hope this will pave the way for long pending reforms in road safety. The Road Safety Bill sits ready with the Government and I hope they will mark this occasion by committing to introduce the Bill in the Budget Session.</p>

<b>Piyush Tewari, Founder and CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation</b>

Tewari is championing the Good Samaritan Law, a law that aims to encourage and protect the rights of bystanders in accident situations.

The guidelines are also set up to protect Good Samaritans from having to pay up at hospitals and from getting entangled in legal cases while helping strangers injured in accidents.

As an awareness programme, National Road Safety Week is observed every January. Tewari filed a petition in the Supreme Court, after which the new Good Samaritan guidelines were adopted.

(Video editing: Sunil Goswami)