Negilgence is the Major Casue of Road Accidents in Kerala

Road accident scenario in Kerala

Road Accidents are un expected events in our life which claim even our life or put our beloved in to misery.They are creating un expected impact on our society, The  loss of lives  coupled with injuries keep manpower  bed ridden and accruing  the monetary loss Unfortunately the worst affected group is the bread winners of the family.Situation in India is having multiplied impact due to this factor also.

Cause of Road Accidents

Our question is how these accidents are happening . The answer come from the  Kerala Police Data base ,for the state of Kerala .Out of the 4183  fatal road accidents recorded in the state during the year 2019 ,3502 cases are  occured due to human negligence ,ranging from error of driver to negligence of authorities .That  means around  83 % of fatal road accidents are occured due to the error of humans.By improving this potential area alone could bring down the rate of accidents as well as fatalities to considerable extent .Hence a lot of things can be done in this area to prevent occurence of road accidents due to human negligence to certain extent.

Human Negligence as  Cause of Accident

The Human Negligence  and Rash driving are the main cause of road accident related to the driver fault,which is  2923  fatal accidents  in kerala in  2019 in which 3113 person died The  percentage wise share of  driver fault is  69.9 % to the total number of fatal accidents happened in kerala.     

Casue of  Fatal  Accidents in Kerala 2019

1. Driver  Fault ( offending Vehicles)              2923 (69.9 %)
2. Fault of Cyclists                                                 5  (0.12%)
3. Fault of Drivers ( Not Offending vehicle )    511  (12.22%)
4. Fault of Pedestrains                                         11  (0.26%)
5. Fault of Passengers                                           8  (0.19%)
6. Negligence of Civil Bodies                                2  (0.48 %)
7. Talking on Mobile                                               0   (0)
8. Drunken Driving                                               23   (0.55%)
9. Others                                                             700   (16.73%)
10. Total                                                               4183

According to the prevailing practice  under  law,the offender will be booked u/s Sec 279,and  304 A IPC for death cases.For cases with bodily injuries  337,338 I P C will be applied.The main Content of Sec  279 IPC is :

"Whoever drives any vehicle, or rides, on any public way in a manner so rash or negligent as to endanger human life, or to be likely to cause hurt or injury to any other person....

Rash Driving is defined as  "acting or tending to act too hastily or without due consideration." and rash Driving is defined as "driver of a vehicle disregards the rules of the road, driving very dangerously, causing accidents or other damage"

Negligence  and Contributory Negligence while Driving

" Negligence Means  breach of duty  casued by omission to do something which is a reasonable man guided by those considerations which ordinarily regulate conduct of human affairs would do or the doing of something which a prudent and reasonable man would not do       1968  CrLJ851:1970Cut LT301"

In the  case of driving of a motor vehicle at public place ,negligence can be termed as disobeyeing traffic regulations like rules,sign boards ,traffic lights or directions given by police men on duty etc.That means every driver,pedestrain,passnegers,other road users are duty bound to obey certain rules for the safety on roads.When the duty is breached by some one, chances for occurence of accident take place and casulaity  may or may not arise depending upon the nature of accident.Hence Negligence plays the vital part .And it is the result of breach of Duty upon road users.

Contibutory Negligence

It contribute to the occurence of the incident,other wise could have avoided by due care and attention of the driver .When some one fails to take necesary care while driving a  vehicle or using road,and an accidednt occured due to the  breach of duty of the offending driver,if the the injured has taken reasonable care he/she could have avoided the accident.Use of Mobile phone while driving is an example for negligence as well as contributory negligence.

Rash and Negligence are the dominant factor for road accidents in india as well as in Kerala State also.

Different Causes of Road Accidents Coming under negligence

The main cause of road accident coming under the term negligence is the activity of driver which make him engaged in  other activity  while driving gets less care.May be this even would last only few seconds or minutes.But it is sufficent to turn the event in to a fatal road accident killing more people.Activities like selection of song,texting or checking whats up messages in mobile phone,talking seriously to some others or ignorance to road signs ignoracne of traffic signals etc are events of human negligence.

The big question is how we could manage to reduce the road accidents generating due to the negligence of driver of offending vehicle or other vehicles or contributory negligence offered by some other  human beings on road.

The big answer is awarness.Creating awarness is one of the possible solution coupled with stricter enforcement strategies.The awarness session will create a duty bound mind upon drivers.If he is properly educated and a good attitude is created ,the driver will pay attention to the road signs after understanding  the risk involved in such violations.

Negligence are some times intangible 

It is always difficult to trace out the negligence part of road accident through the investigation procedure adopted at present.Because the present system of investigation not using any advanced scientific methods for road accident investigation.The present system is based on evidence as in the case of any other criminal cases.While on trial before competent court,the quantum of evidence will be weighed to determine the liablilty of offenders.Hence it is not possible to detect the negligence always and to frame charge aganist the accused.

How to Improve

Certainely lot of things could be done to improve the situation.It must be started from the the authorities to the lowest level.At least 2 nos of  fatal road accident occured in the state due to the negligence of the authorities.That means they are duty bound to do certain things for the safety of public but they are not doing it or willing to do it.

Ralationship with Information Input and Negligence
While a driver is driving a vehicle  he receives lot of informations.They are mainly in the form of visual information and audible informations.Visual informations are vital .Reading  sign board,traffic  warning, etc related to driving.In addition to them lot of other informations also he receives while driving like talking to cell phone,listening to radio,interacting with co passengers etc.