Adherence to traffic rules must for safety: President

Pune, Jan 17 (UNI) President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam today urged auto scientists and engineers to promote vehicle safety by designing safety systems like protection against various impacts for protecting occupants of vehicles with minimal use of materials.

The President was speaking at the inauguration of SIAT--2007, a symposium on International Automotive Technology.

The President said the present safety systems for standard and commercial vehicles used anti-skid breaking system.

'' However, we need vehicles that are protected against various impacts.We need to protect against impacts from front, side, rear, offset, car-to car,'' he said.

''The development of energy absorbing materials will be critical in this area. For preventing accidents at night we need research on adaptive front lighting, bent head system and provision of indirect vision devices like cameras in areas where the driver cannot see,'' he said.

Quoting the WHO report, he said road accidents take 1.2 million lives and India accounts for 10 per cent of those. A survey has stated that India loses upto Rs 55,000 crores annually due to road accidents, he said.

The President said the safety of two wheelers, the largest mode of transport in India, depended largely on driving discipline and adherence to traffic rules.

UNI