Speed-breakers take nine lives a day, Parliament told

New Delhi: Speed-breakers on roads are taking nine lives a day and causing 30 accidents.

The numbers were disclosed by the ministry for road transport and highways on Thursday in response to questions raised by members of Parliament P.R. Sundaram and Rajeev Shankarrao. The road ministry said it started compiling data on road accidents caused by speed-breakers in 2014.

According to data submitted by police departments in states and union territories, in 2014 as many as 11,008 accidents were caused by speed-breakers, claiming 2,633 lives and injuring 9,428 people. In 2015, in 11,084 speed-breaker-related road accidents, 3,409 people lost their lives and 9,764 were injured.

International road federation chairman K.K. Kapila says the problem is not the speed-breakers but their design and size. Ideally, public works departments should be responsible for constructing them, but in India anyone does so if they see a lot of traffic on a road.

“In India, the speed-breakers are constructed wherever people find a lot of traffic is moving. As per international standards a speed-breaker has to be visible with proper markings and sign boards to alert a commuter about its presence ahead,” said Kapila.

The ministry said that wherever reduction of speed on national highways becomes unavoidable due to specific site constraints, states/union territories have been asked to provide rumble strips as traffic calming measures. The road ministry has also requested that all states remove unauthorized speed-breakers from national highways.