The Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS), Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) commenced its data-driven interventions in the state of Tamil Nadu.
India currently has the highest number of road crashes and fatalities in the world. Crash data from 2022 published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) attributes that nearly 60% of fatalities took place on 5% of the roads (National and State Highways) in India. The working age group of 18 to 60 accounts for 83.4% of the total road crash fatalities in the country, which has serious implications on the emotional and psychological impact on family and society at large and imposes significant socioeconomic costs on the nation.
Data-driven interventions refers to developing strategies using evidence and analytics of data from existing road crash data to develop actionable plans to actively reduce road crashes and fatalities. CoERS works across the 5Es of road safety – Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Emergency Care – using data-driven strategies.
The key features of this collaboration include Capacity Building on:
- Root-Cause Analysis Matrix (RCAM) for Scientific Crash Investigation
- Road Safety Survey and Audit.
- Activity-oriented curriculum and pedagogy.
- Baseline survey of all trauma care centres in the state.
Commending this IIT Madras initiative, Thiru A. Shanmuga Sundaram, IAS, Commissioner of Transport, Government of Tamil Nadu, said, “Data is crucial when it comes to targeted interventions as it provides an understanding of where capacity constraints and requirements are present. We are happy to work with a premier institution like CoERS, IIT Madras to help us develop the required policy and strategies to save lives on roads. Roads are meant to unite families, not to break them.”
Elaborating on the platform, Professor Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Head, CoERS and RBG Labs, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras, who is coordinating this initiative, said, “A sharp reduction of road fatalities is the basic requirement for us to progress as a nation. As a shared asset, safety on roads is a collective responsibility that involves all stakeholders. With a good reporting platform now available, the number of recorded crashes remains high, making it imperative that we develop a strategy strongly backed by good data.”