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        India has just two percent of the world's roads but accounts globally for seven per cent of all road accidents. In 2004 alone, according to data collected by the National Crime Research Bureau, there had been 362,000 accidents killing 91,000 persons.

        With more and more vehicles on the roads, the incidence of accidents and concomitant deaths registers an annual increase by between 10 and 15 per cent. Another computation puts the daily count of fatalities at around the number carried by an Air Bus-300 plane.

        This puts the horror in proper focus in that the hue and cry raised over deaths in an air crash is missing merely because the figure of daily (road) deaths represents a distributional average. This apart from the callousness of the common man who passes by a writhing figure without any emotion.

        Perhaps he has reason to be indifferent because he does not want to spend long hours in the police station as the first informer or witness or he is not sure whether the fatality is due to sheer accident or is the result of political vendetta which could harm him also for intervening in the matter.

        Of course, as a people, we least deserve good roads because it gives the wrong inducement to demonstrate our ability to drive at a faster speed than light. Also, in segments of dense traffic, the urge to keep speeding induces us even to ignore traffic signals or indulge in crisis cross movements while changing lanes.

        There is as yet no competent attempt on the part either of the Centre or the State governments to create an institution to impart road culture not merely as an academic discipline but as part of the equipment of those who are licensed to drive .

        Part of the trouble is due to lack of proper maintenance. There is no coordination among road diggers who wish to lay cables, water mains or sewage lines. More often than not, a freshly laid road is dug up in succession by these kinds of diggers who do not fill the trenches effectively, endangering vehicles.

        Population cannot be an alibi for stalling road improvements. Traffic in Beijing in 1986 was more chaotic than in New Delhi of today but by 1999 Beijing could rub shoulders with the USA for its excellent expressways and flyovers. This success can surely be emulated, given the will by Indian administrations.

        A sincere effort should be made to eliminate corruption which , at present, gets for one a driving licence without undergoing any tests. Instead mandatory tests of driving skill should precede the giving of a driving licence and at every time it is renewed at prescribed intervals.

        Double fencing on the lines of the Ahhmedabad-Vadodara expressway must be mandatory on all highways to prevent cattle and dogs from straying on to the road. Of course, lessons on road safety should be incorporated in the curricular syllabus to cultivate a proper road sense among the rising generation.