A message by International Road Body after Cyrus Mistry’s death

Mumbai, Sep 05: Geneva-based body International Road Federation (IRF) on Sunday expressed concern over the death of former Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry in a road accident near Palghar in the state.

In a statement, IRF, which is a global body working for safer roads also expressed concern at vehicle safety, alleging that despite being an "expensive" SUV it "failed" to save the passenger in the vehicle.

Mistry (54) was killed on Sunday when his luxury car, in which he was travelling, hit a road divider in the Palghar district of Maharashtra.

"We condole the untimely demise of Cyrus Mistry. But we would also like to draw Union and state governments' attention towards the increasing number of fatal road accidents in the country," said KK Kapila, President emeritus at International Road Federation, news agency PTI reported.

The Federation claimed that "India accounts for more than 11 per cent of the road accidents deaths worldwide with 426 lives lost every day and 18 every hour." Over 1.6 lakh lives were lost in the year 2021, it stated, emphasising that "most of the road accident deaths are avoidable." India is a signatory to the United Nations Decade of Action plan for Road Safety across the world which aims to reduce road fatalities by 50 per cent by the year 2030, according to IRF.

"We urge the union government and the various state government's to fix killer accident prone black spots in various parts of the country," he said.

"Apart from road engineering, IRF also expresses concern at vehicle safety (as) despite being an expensive SUV it failed to save the passenger in the vehicle," the statement said.