Mercedes-Benz brings road safety awareness to Ahmedabad; presents the unique 'Safe Roads' initiative in the city

Chandigarh –Mercedes-Benz and its group companies Mercedes-Benz India (MBIL), Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI) and Daimler Financial Services India (DFS) inaugurated Safe Roads – Ahmedabad, a unique Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, as part of the multi-city awareness road-show that started in New Delhi, earlier this year.

Safety is a core competency and a core value for Mercedes-Benz and its automotive brands. Mercedes-Benz in particular, is renowned worldwide for developing highly sophisticated safety systems. However, implementation of effective safety systems remains a challenge, as the road users often do not comply with traffic rules or do not use the safety systems onboard their vehicles.

On Indian roads, approximately 140,000 people die every year of road accidents, largely caused due to ignorance of safety norms and rules. 'Safe Roads' was hence conceptualized by Mercedes-Benz, in an effort to reduce this startling fatality rate on Indian roads, by creating more awareness on road safety. Mercedes-Benz is convinced that such initiatives can begin an era of road safety awareness that supports a new culture of road safety for Indians. Over 70 per cent of the fatalities can be reduced in the next ten years through education and enforcement of safety rules and by creating awareness.

Safe Roads was inaugurated at L.D. College of Engineering, Ahmedabad by Jochen Feese, Head of Accident Research, Sensor Functions and Pedestrian Protection, Mercedes-Benz Cars, Manu Saale, Managing Director & CEO, Mercedes-Benz R&D India (MBRDI) and Parthiv Shah, General Manager, Computational Engineering, MBRDI.

'Safe Roads' is a collaborative initiative of Mercedes-Benz group companies along with JP Research, Apollo Hospitals and IIT Delhi.The partner organizations have supported the initiative with in-depth research information and data on the existing scenario of road safety in India. These research reports also provide indicators of how the scenario can be improved through education and enforcement of traffic rules.

Jochen Feese, Head of Accident Research, Sensor Functions and Pedestrian Protection, Mercedes-Benz Carscommented: "Safety remains a core value and of utmost importance for Mercedes-Benz and our business units stress safety as a priority for the user, as well as for the environment they are operating in. When we learned about the accident and fatality rates in India, we decided to develop the 'Safe Roads' CSR initiative. This is also in line with our spirit of good corporate citizenship – which translates into contributing to the society we operate in. We hope that our initiative will kick-start an era of road safety awareness and will support a new culture of road safety among the road users in India."

Manu Saale, MD & CEO, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India added: "Technology, Innovation and Research go hand-in-hand in improving vehicle safety. With the Safe Roads initiative we have brought in a new era of safety awareness keeping the Indian road scenario in focus. Accidents and resulting fatalities can not only be greatly reduced through innovative technologies, but also through responsible driver and passenger behavior. Mercedes-Benz has developed state-of-the-art safety features in its products that have proven to be effective. At MBRDI alone there are over 100 engineers contributing to these technologies in active and passive safety of Mercedes-Benz vehicles with 54 patents filed on automotive safety alone. While there are policy and regulatory hurdles that exist in order to apply them in India, we hope that the 'Safe Roads' initiative will enhance the road user's awareness of such technologies, and will help persuading the legislators to ease these norms for the greater good of the society."

'Safe Roads' aims at spreading the message of road safety through physical demonstration, visual aids and research reports. The physical demonstration will be undertaken with the use of exhibits that have been brought from Germany providing a real life experience of safety measures that can potentially save lives during road accidents:

The Belt-Slide exhibit enables visitors to experience the impact of seat belts in a simulated crash environment at low speed. The aim is to increase the percentage of seat belts usage for front row passengers including driver.

Airbags will also be on display (driver and passenger airbags, curtain airbags, knee bags, etc.).

A 'Body in White' (BiW) passenger car exhibit highlights some of the core elements of a car structure which have high tensile strength that can absorb most of the energy during a crash and minimize passenger car intrusions.

Alcohol goggles on display also provide a unique experience. Wearing these special types of glasses simulates the common 'walk-the-line' activity which causes loss of balance and delayed reaction times. Visitors will feel their susceptibility to impairments and realize the potential severe consequences due to alcohol consumption.

An absolute highlight is the original ESF (Experimental Safety) vehicle. The ESF 2009 will be on display to showcase a glimpse of future of safety. The ESF illustrates trailblazing innovations in the field of safety like PRE-SAFE, Braking Bag, Interactive Vehicle Communication, etc., some of which have already found their introduction into current products.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) India had seen the highest number of road traffic fatalities in 2010, and this made up about 15% of global road traffic fatalities. There has been some good work undertaken by the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) and WHO's Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, where a declining road traffic fatality trend was observed in India for the first time, since 2012. However, road traffic injuries remain a concern as about half a million are reported each year. According to Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MORTH), during the period 2003-2013, India's reported road traffic fatalities grew by 60%, with around 137,572 fatalities in 2013. When compared with other emerging market country, China saw a 43% fatality reduction was observed during 2004-2012.

Figure 1: Fatality projection by 2025



If 2011 is taken as base year, the fatality trend will reach about 250,000 by the year 2025 if business as usual continues with respect to road safety. However, 38% fatality reduction could be achieved with strong enforcement on drunk driving, overloading and load protruding and 80% fatality reduction could be achieved with strong enforcement on driver related factors – including over- speeding. By 2025, the projected number of fatalities could be reduced to about 50,000, following the above enforcements (as shown in Figure 1).

According to a sample study, in 50% of the accidents, there were no accident avoidance manoeuvres from the drivers. Only in 30% of the accidents, drivers performed a brake or swerve manoeuvre or a combination of both. Also, the percentage use of seat belts by car drivers and front passengers is low (about 16%). There is a need to show case and make road users understand the impact; a typical seat belt will have in a crash scenario.

Following the event at Ahmedabad, the Safe Roads initiative will travel to Pune, Mumbai, and Bengaluru.

Originally Source : Perfect Relations