This story is from July 23, 2019

Blog: Let data drive crash probes, factor in infrastructure

​​A 24-year old CRPF man, Narender, was killed at the Josip Broz Tito Marg-Siri Fort Road intersection of south Delhi on the night of July 18. A speeding Mercedes jumped a traffic light and rammed into the car which was carrying him and two of his colleagues.
Blog: Let data drive crash probes, factor in infrastructure
A 24-year old CRPF man, Narender, was killed at the Josip Broz Tito Marg-Siri Fort Road intersection of south Delhi on the night of July 18. A speeding Mercedes jumped a traffic light and rammed into the car which was carrying him and two of his colleagues.
Such incidents are not uncommon, but there are two ways of looking at them. One is to ask ‘what’ happened, and ‘who’ did it. The other is to also ask ‘why’ it happened and ‘how’ can we stop such crashes — which are happening at an alarming frequency — from recurring.
In 2017 alone, over 1,500 people died in road crashes in Delhi. That’s over 125 deaths a month.
image (61)

Several stretches of roads, such as the one from Signature Bridge to Bhalaswa Chowk in Outer Delhi, have already been designated as black spots given the recurrence of such crashes on the stretch. Which of the two approaches we adopt will determine whether we can tackle this menace decisively and make Delhi’s roads safe for all or continue to suffer.
In the event of a mishap, police investigators usually rummage through the crash debris to look for answers. Such investigations are directed towards building a case against the bigger vehicle involved. The data recorded by police as part of these investigations is compiled and submitted to the state crime records bureau, which then passes it on to the relevant policymaking bodies at the state and central levels. The authorities, therefore, rely on this data to draft guidelines for road safety. Undertaken ritualistically, most police investigations into crashes are intended to identify which driver was at fault, limiting the scope and purpose of such a probe.

The police’s crash reporting format does cover an account of time, date, location, road-related information and basic credential data of vehicles and people involved. While this format does record a crash occurrence, it fails to guard against a recurrence. It completely ignores the contributing factors for the crash or to what extent the vehicles and the victims are affected and, consequently, does not lead to any conclusive counter-measures.
It’s a no-brainer that all possible risks involved — be it human, vehicular or infrastructural — must be factored in. Studying aspects such as the physics of the crash, road engineering practices followed at the spot, road visibility, pedestrian infrastructure, traffic control systems and availability of emergency care can help determine the exact causes and help develop appropriate counter-measures.
On July 28, 2018, a bus carrying 34 people in Maharashtra’s Raigad district plunged 800 feet into a gorge, killing all but one. The government of Maharashtra requested Save-LIFE Foundation (SLF) for helping with the investigation. Within hours, a team of forensic road crash investigators from SLF was on scene. It was determined that while the crash occurred due to driver fatigue, missing crash barriers at the scene led to the bus falling into the gorge causing the high number of deaths.
The process was not only able to reconstruct the crash minute-by-minute but also provide specific counter-measures to prevent such crashes. All recommendations by SLF, including installation of crash barriers, were implemented by the state government within days. Similar data-driven interventions by SLF and the Maharashtra government on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway have resulted in a 27% drop in deaths between 2016 and 2018.
One of the key inputs in a forensic crash investigation is evidence such as skid marks, fluid spills and impacted objects. Each element is methodically recognised and documented. To reconstruct the scene, data such as the exact length of the tyre marks, final resting point of the vehicles or road users involved and nature of the damage from the point of impact must be collected to ensure that no room is left for misinterpretation.
The vehicles too are meticulously studied — from their mechanical condition, tyres, headlights and brake lights to safety mechanism such as seatbelts, airbags, etc. This helps determine if there was any other contributing fault.
Whether it is human error — like over-speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, lack of use of safety gear or distracted driving -- a mechanical failure in the vehicle or faulty infrastructure — such as lack of visibility at a steep turn, potholes on the road or unavailability of medical care in the vicinity – the forensic crash investigation approach paints the true picture of the crash. It brings to fore the key contributing factors across all areas, based on which appropriate counter-measures are determined and implemented by SLF and our partner agency.
Institutionalising and implementing in-depth, forensic crash investigations must be the first radical change to be introduced for substantially checking road crash deaths. But the data produced by such investigations will not help unless it is combined with coordinated efforts by government bodies, police, policy makers and public. Such efforts when integrated with enforcement, re-engineering of infrastructure and improvements in emergency response can prove to be game-changers in reducing deaths and injuries.
This is the essence of the joint approach by SLF, Delhi government and Delhi Police for making the 12-km stretch of road from Signature Bridge to Bhalaswa Chowk fatalityfree by 2021 and to ensure that young promising lives like that of Narender are not lost.
(Piyush Tewari is Founder and CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation)
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA