Roads and streets are more than just connections from point A to point B. They tell stories, some of them tragic but worth learning. They are bitter yet important. These stories could be lessons for others. On this day I wish to share my experience with you.

The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDR) is held on the third Sunday of November each year to remember the millions of those who died or were injured in road traffic accidents and the plight of their loved ones who have to cope up with the consequences of their deaths or injuries.

It is also a day on which we thank the emergency services and reflect on the tremendous burden and cost of this daily continuing disaster to families, communities and countries, and on ways to halt it.

WDR was started by the British road crash victim charity, Road Peace, in 1993 and was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. In 2008 events were held in 28 countries including India.

Road deaths and injuries are sudden, violent and traumatic events. Their impact is long-lasting, often permanent. The cumulative toll is truly tremendous.

This author believes that human resource is the biggest resource. The road traffic accidents are depleting not only financial resources but the human resources as well.

These injuries are not only causing physical and financial disability but social disability too.

As our country is growing economically, so are the road traffic accidents.

Every year, the nation is not only losing 1.5 lakh people, but also an equal number of them are being disabled permanently, if they survive. Road accidents do not differentiate between the sections of the society, rich or poor, skilled or unskilled, old or young.

However, statistics show that majority of those who are affected are in the age group of 20-40 years and are usually the bread earners of their families.

As we all know, a major accident took place in Uttarakhand in the recent past in which 48 out of 60 people died and in similar accidents in Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra 52 out of 98 and 32 people out of 33 died, respectively.

The grief and distress experienced by this huge number of people is all the more agonising because many of the victims are young and because many of the crashes could have been prevented if proper precautions were taken.

The governments’ and society’s response to road death and injury and to the bereaved and injured victims is often inadequate and inappropriate in commensuration to a loss of life or quality of life.

It can be prevented if everybody cares about safety first while on the road. The number of road traffic accidents can be brought down significantly if proper road safety guidelines are followed.

In a recently published 2017 Government of India report, it was found that if those people who are driving and simultaneously using mobile phones, meet with a road traffic accident, then 40 per cent of them die.

Recently in Kushinagar, UP, 13 children died because the driver of the school vehicle was using the mobile phone while crossing the railway line.

The victim may not be our friend and our family member but he could be friend and family member of someone else for sure.

 One can only imagine the suffering of parents and grandparents of the kids killed in an accident.

Being an orthopaedic surgeon for about 40 years, I came to know many such stories, but would like mention two such stories.

 In one incident, a young man was killed in a road traffic accident while he had gone out to distribute his marriage invitation cards two days before his marriage.

Now his widow mother is dependent and living alone though she has a daughter because according to popular tradition, the mother does not live with her married daughter’s family.

In another incident, the teenager daughter was going to drop her mother who was a teacher to her school one morning. On the way, they met with a road traffic accident. They were a family of four-- father, mother, brother and sister.

The father and son already had long standing mental illness. The mother sustained fracture of hip bone and the daughter had fractures of thigh and leg bones. The daughter succumbed to her injuries. Parents lost their only daughter and the brother lost his only sister.

However, the problem is far from over, the mother is having persistent lifelong fear of developing loss of blood supply of fractured hip which is a known complication in these types of fractures in spite of the best possible treatment.

This special day of remembrance is therefore intended to respond to the great need of support for the road crash victims, for public recognition of their loss and suffering.

It has also become an important tool for governments and for those who work to prevent crashes or respond to the aftermath.

 It offers the opportunity to demonstrate the enormous scale and impact of road deaths and injuries and the urgent need for action.

Road traffic accidents are on the rise all over the world but such accidents are more in India not only because of inadequate road safety measures but also due to lack of willingness and awareness in the masses to follow traffic rules as well.

There is an urgent need for comprehensive measures to prevent them, treat them at a proper time and at optimum cost.The world day of remembrance for road traffic victims has become an important tool in global efforts to reduce road casualties.

It offers an opportunity for drawing attention to the scale of emotional and economic devastation caused by road crashes and for giving recognition to the suffering of road crash victims and to acknowledge the importance of the work of support and rescue services.

A national awareness programme should be launched to make the general public aware about the road safety rules and regulations.

And to be a small part of this magnanimous task, the author’s organisation has been conducting such awareness programmes since 2005.

I have been sharing my experience with the students of schools and colleges, keeping in mind the fact that even a single mishap during road accidents can change physical, mental, social and financial status of the injured person for a generation to come.

According to our study, 90 per cent of accidents are due to driver’s carelessness and only 10 per cent are due to other causes like ill maintained roads and vehicles.

If we follow the traffic rules honestly then the chances of accidents can be reduced significantly.

(The author is an orthopaedic and spine surgeon, and the founding president of State Chapter of Indian Orthopaedic Association)