40 pc private school vehicles in Delhi not equipped with seat belts: Survey

New Delhi, October 7

As much as 40 per cent vehicles ferrying children to schools in Delhi are not equipped with seat belts, claims a new survey on road safety that puts the national figure at 47 per cent.

The findings were revealed in 'National Study on Safe Commute to School', a report by SaveLIFE Foundation and Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI).

The report, released on Thursday, highlights the gaps in road safety during children's school commute.

"Nationally, availability of seat belts in school vehicles was less, with 47 per cent of the respondents stating that their school vehicles were not equipped with seat belts. In Delhi, 40 per cent of the respondents reported the same," the survey showed.

The survey, conducted after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, had 11,845 respondents, including 5,711 children (of classes VI-XII) and 6,134 parents (with children in classes I-X) from 14 cities, including Delhi, in India.

Further, the survey stated that at 63 per cent, Delhi has India's third largest proportion of cycle users reporting the "absence of cycling paths".

In 2019, 11,168 children below the age of 18 died due to road crashes, out of which 63 deaths took place in Delhi, the report stated.

"In Delhi, a whopping 63 per cent of respondents claimed that there were no cycling paths across the school zone, and 29 per cent reported the absence of footpaths," according to it.

"Further, 98 per cent of the respondents that commuted to school by walking reported that they never used retro reflective stickers," the report added.

Managing Director & CEO of MBRDI Manu Saale emphasised the importance of safe vehicles and said their constant endeavour is to make the roads safer for everyone.

"It is our hope that this study will help all critical stakeholders to better appreciate where things stand in India in this context, and further extend our vision of zero casualties to all modes of road transport," he said in a statement.

SaveLIFE Foundation CEO and founder Piyush Tewari said the findings through this report have "once again" emphasised that the right to safe commute to school is as important as the right to education itself.

"A comprehensive national and state school transport safety policy can ensure that. While there is a vaccine for COVID, the vaccine for child deaths on our roads is really our collective action," Tewari said.

The report further revealed that nationally, 54 per cent of the respondents who conveyed their general concerns about the various issues that they face during school commute to the school authorities reported that "no action" was taken by school authorities.

When asked about the driver's road-user behaviour, nationally, about 23 per cent of the parents and 26 per cent of the children using privately-arranged vehicles claimed that the child complained about rash driving by the driver.

"About 15 per cent of the parents and 13 per cent of the children in Delhi reported the same," the report stated.

When it comes to usage of safety devices among self or family-driven transport users, nationally 34 per cent of the respondents admitted that they never ensure that all passengers are using a headgear or helmet, it noted.

Further, 20 per cent of the respondents who use private cars admitted that all passengers (including children) don't wear seat belts, it added.

"In Delhi, 9 per cent of the respondents overall (7 per cent parents and 11 per cent children) claimed that it is never ensured that all passengers wear a helmet. Further, 3 per cent of the respondents reported that they never wear seat belts during their commute," the report stated.

Delhi schools had briefly reopened in January 2021. However, due to the second wave of COVID-19, the schools were yet again shut. Now that schools have reopened in the state again, stakeholders need to ensure that children are protected from the dual risk of COVID-19 and road traffic injury during their school commute, it said. PTI

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