The dopiness Bharat NCAP cannot solve

Using basic safety devices such as seatbelt and helmet can save numerous lives and limbs

Nils Bohlin, an engineer with Sweden’s Volvo, developed the modern three-point seatbelt in 1959. It was patented, but Volvo made the design available to all vehicle manufacturers in the interest of public safety.

But Bohlin may have underestimated the human propensity for self-harm, which, when it comes to driving, manifests itself as acts of dopiness.

On Tuesday, Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for road transport and highways, launched India’s own crash test safety rating regime, Bharat NCAP (NCAP is New Car Assessment Programme), for manufacturers to get their vehicles rated on a scale of five stars.

Industry experts believe BNCAP is the first to be run by a national government. The Global NCAP and others are private enterprises funded by car companies, component makers, charities, and so on. BNCAP puts a disinterested entity at the heart of it, avoiding the conflicts that can arise where things are in the hands of private entities operating in the same industry. It also brings down the cost of testing to Rs 60 lakh, about a fourth of Global NCAP’s.

Mr Gadkari said 30 requests for crash tests had already come in. Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker, which has been in favour of India having its own testing standards, responded with enthusiasm and said it will offer at least three models for BNCAP testing immediately.

This was much-needed. A World Bank blog of March 2021 said India had 1 per cent of the world’s vehicles but 11 per cent of road crash deaths. Road crashes, it said, cost India 3 per cent to 5 per cent of the gross domestic product every year.

We hope BNCAP, though voluntary for the manufacturers, will become the norm as it begins to influence purchase decisions in favour of safer cars. We also hope people, having bought cars with safety features, will use those features.

On current evidence, that is not happening, and Bohlin’s best intentions, 64 years down the line, may still be misplaced. Data from Mr Gadkari’s ministry shows 87 per cent of the deaths in cars came to  people who were not wearing seatbelts.

As most data goes, this is nameless and faceless. But there have been names and faces in such cases.

As far back as 2014, Gopinath Munde, a minister, died when his car was hit by another on the Prithviraj Road-Tughlaq Road roundabout in the heart of New Delhi. His body lurched forward and his spine broke. Had he been wearing the seatbelt, he may have come out with just the abrasion on the nose, the only sign of injury on his body.

In September last year, Cyrus Mistry, the former Tata Sons chairman, died when the driver lost control of his speeding car in Palghar, 100 km from Mumbai. Mistry was in the backseat, not wearing the seatbelt. Those in the front seats, who had their seatbelts fastened, survived.

In a crash in Delhi, three doctors travelling in a multi-utility vehicle died and two suffered serious injuries, but the only two who had their seatbelts fastened suffered minor injuries.

In the current discourse, car safety is becoming synonymous with airbags. But the humble old seatbelt is perhaps the most effective safety device. An airbag, if it deploys when the seatbelt is not fastened, can kill instead of saving.

Yet, as the number of airbags grows, surveys show 70 per cent of the car people in India do not use seatbelts in front; 96 per cent avoid it in the backseat.

They give all kinds of reasons for their abhorrence. Some say seatbelts ruin their well-pressed clothes, some do not think the seatbelt is much of a safety device. Most people who do wear seatbelts say they do it for the fear of the challan. 

This is why, though BNCAP is much-needed, road safety in India requires a holistic approach that encompasses, in addition to safety features in cars, measures to create awareness. It should also address road engineering and design, signage, and black spots. For, it is not just the people inside cars who get hurt in an accident.

In fact, car occupant fatalities have been declining, from 18 per cent in 2016 to 13.6 per cent in 2020. In contrast, fatalities of what are called “vulnerable road users” — pedestrians, bicyclists, and two-wheeler riders — have been on the rise, from 47 per cent in 2016 to 64 per cent in 2020.

No wonder the World Bank blog says: “In a diverse and developing country like India, road crashes are intrinsically linked to the victims’ class, gender, income and geographical location.”

That said, 70 per cent of the two-wheeler riders who die in accidents are without helmets. And over-speeding is the common element in 69 per cent of all fatalities. The propensity for self-harm knows no limits.