It needs to be explored whether the pride and contempt of possessing wealth by a fraction of the road users can play a determinant role in neglecting to practice road safety to the peril of the vulnerable road users.
Because the trend of wealthy and motorised road users snuffing out the life of vulnerable road users, especially in Goa has become a standard example of Discriminatory Road Safety avoidance.
In a 2021 Research Article by Devajana Chinnappa Nanjunda attached to the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, University of Mysore in his Article titled: ‘Impact of socio-economic profiles on public health crisis of road traffic accidents: A qualitative study from South India’.
- The result of the qualitative study showed a valid and reliable direction regarding the association of different low socio-economic issues as a key factor for road accidents specifically among disadvantaged youths.
- The rate of injuries or death was also determined by the exposure to risk, which could differ between different socioeconomic groups.
- The study noted that higher levels of deprivation led to a higher fatal injury rate or death among low socioeconomic groups.
- The study suggested a need to have preventive and behavioral modification for high-risk groups.
Being equipped with rationale that the perplexity of the socioeconomic stratification invokes a greater burden on road crash victims in the lower echelon of the Goan spheres of community co-existence, the 2021 findings of the World Bank report on “Traffic Crash Injuries and Disabilities: The Burden on Indian Society” come as no surprise.
The World Bank Report observes:
- Road crash deaths in India were among the highest in the world. With only 1% of world’s vehicles, India accounted for almost 10% of all crash related deaths.
- In India, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists, who mostly represented the poor income strata of the society, also happened to have the least safety protection in the event of a traffic crash. This sub-group accounted for more than half the total road crash related deaths.
- The incidence of fatality post-crash was higher among victims from low-income households than from high-income households.
- Around 40% of the households in rural areas reported at least one death after a road crash in comparison to 12% of households in urban areas.
- The decline in total household income was sharper among low-income households (75%) than high-income households (54%).
- Inequality in insurance coverage and delay in accessing compensation negatively affected the quick recovery process for low-income households.
- Within households, women were faced with the brunt of caregiving activities post-crash, which led to a double burden of physical and mental stress thus exacerbating inequality of opportunities in returning to livelihoods and income generating tasks.
Resultantly, the World Bank study emphasised the need to tailor road safety initiatives according to the socio-economic status of road users, as road traffic injuries in India especially affect vulnerable road users, most of whom were poor.
The ethos of the present inconsistencies in addressing the road safety issues based on socioeconomic stratification is not new science but rather similar theories were hypothesised in the western countries almost two decades ago.
Harper et al. (2015) in their Journal Article titled: ‘Trends in Socioeconomic Inequalities in Motor Vehicle Accident Deaths in the United States, 1995“2010’ published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, observed the following general characteristics of Inequalities detected in Road Safety:
- Harper et al. (2015) suggested that poor and less educated motorists were more likely to die in car accidents than more financially well-off and better educated peers.
- The study found that individuals age 25 and older with less than a high school education faced elevated risks of being killed in traffic accidents.
- The disparity in death rates of less educated motorists was roughly 2.5 times higher than well-educated motorists in 1995, according to the study. In 2010, the disparity increased to 4.3 times.
Interestingly, the study by Harper et al. (2015) acknowledged that would be difficult to pinpoint the precise reasons behind the peculiarity of the findings, but the authors did speculate factors that would likely contribute to the findings. These could include: Old, dangerous, or poorly maintained roads and infrastructure in low-income communities, Alternative forms of travel used by lower income individuals that made them more vulnerable to serious injuries, including walking, biking, or commuting by bus.
Financial resources that enabled car buyers to purchase newer and safer cars equipped with the latest safety features.
It is the above mentioned factor of superior access to financial resources which directly enabled car buyers to purchase big cars such as SUVS that would eventually pose greater risk to the safety of non-motorised and vulnerable road users.
Relatedly, according to Data Scientist: Danny Cunningham in his January, 2023 article titled: ‘SUVs are Killing People’.
“Publicly available traffic crash data shows that SUVs kill and injure pedestrians at a higher rate than smaller cars”.
“Large SUVs and pickup trucks are, unsurprisingly, more likely than smaller cars to injure or kill pedestrians due to their greater weight and taller front ends.” Danny Cunningham (2023).
In a March 2022 study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) titled: ‘SUVs, other large vehicles often hit pedestrians while turning’.
It was observed that pedestrian deaths increased by 59% since 2009, and 20% of all motor vehicle deaths were pedestrians in 2020. Several factors contribute to these grim statistics, but a big one was the size of vehicles on the road.
According to IIHS Senior Transportation Engineer Wen Hu: “It’s possible that the size, shape or location of the A-pillars that support the roof on either side of the windshield could make it harder for drivers of these larger vehicles to see crossing pedestrians when they are turning.”
In conclusion, scientific data exists to prove the correlation between large and luxury vehicles being involved in fatal road crashes is highly probable due to the design engineering of the vehicle while the temptation to engage in overspeeding and road rage against the road users hailing from disadvantaged sections of the society is an unfortunate consequence.
