1. Road accidents are a human tragedy, which involve a high degree of human suffering. The ramification of road accidents can be colossal and their negative impact is felt not only on individuals, their health and family welfare, but also on the economy of the country. They impose a huge socio-economic cost in terms of untimely deaths, injuries and loss of potential income. The World Health Organisation Global Status Report on Road Accidents, 2013 (in short WHO Report of 2013) estimates GDP loss due to road traffic accidents in our country to be 3 per cent which is higher than emerging and emerged economies like Russia (1.9), Mexico (1.7), Malaysia (1.6), Brazil (1.2), Turkey (1.1), Korea (1.1), New Zealand (0.02), United Kingdom (1.2), and United States (2.3).

2. Our country has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of road accidents. According to the latest report of Road Transport Ministry, 4,90,383 road accidents were reported in 2012 resulting in 1,38,258 deaths i.e. an average of one road accident every minute resulting in one death every 3.8 minutes which is highest in the world. According to the WHO Report of 2013, India counts for about 10 per cen