Maha mulls including road safety as subject in school syllabus

"The Home department will request the state education department to include road safety in school syllabus with a view to spread awareness among students," Patil said, adding deaths in road mishaps are only next to natural deaths.

Citing violation of various traffic norms as the main reason behind road accidents, Patil said most of the casualties are reported in the age group of 18-44.

He was responding to a debate on road safety on the floor of the House.

Patil said 13,600 people die in road accidents every year and around 50,000 families are getting affected due to mishaps.

Most of the accidents happen due to various forms of violations like driving at high speed, lane cutting, driving under influence of alcohol, ferrying more number of people in vehicles than capacity, he said.

"75 per cent of accidents happen due to human error," the home minister said, adding deaths in mishaps due to natural phenomena like landslides, floods, foggy weather etc constitute around 7.9 per cent of total accidents in the state.

Patil said more than two lakh people have been charged for driving under influence of alcohol since the state government launched a drive in 2006 and has collected Rs 33.67 crore in fine from the offenders.

The home minister also informed that the number of vehicles on road is going up 10 per cent every year.

Patil said that a committee comprising ministers of states for Home, PWD and Transport, represented by Satej Patil, Ranjit Kamble and Gulabrao Deokar, respectively, will be set up to suggest measures to curb the road accidents.