More than 34,215 people in ODISHA have lost their lives to road accidents in the past decade. India suffers the highest number of road accident deaths in the world and in 2012 alone, almost 1,40,000 people were killed and close to 5,00,000 were seriously injured or permanently disabled. Road accidents are the single biggest killer of young people, aged 15-45, in India. The Planning Commission estimates that the socio-economic cost of accidents is approximately 3% of India’s GDP. In August 2013, the Honorable Supreme Court of India has called the problem of road accident deaths in India a “National Emergency”. The causes for India’s exceptionally high number of crashes include a fractured licensing system, insufficient drivers’ training, flawed road design and engineering, weak enforcement of traffic laws and the lack of rapid trauma care. The sole statute governing Road Safety in India, the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (MVA) has failed to address any of the aforementioned issues decisively. The need of the hour is a comprehensive, all-inclusive national road safety law.

pledge‬ “‪FRIENDLYFIVE‬” for ‪‎road safety‬ , ‪‎ORSA‬ Initiative is a ‪‎social‬‪ ‎campaign‬ to make our ‪‎roads‬ ‪‎safer‬ and attempt to reduce the number of “‪preventable‬ ‪‎accidents‬” by encouraging citizens to demonstrate more responsible behavior behind the wheel. While lack of ‪awareness‬, bad road designs, poor maintenance of roads are definitely a part of the problem, a majority of the accidents are a result of ‪drunken driving‬.