This week in Auto: Has the lockdown improved India’s road accident record?

Representative image

Since March 25 all India's 228 national highways have been wearing a deserted look following the call to lockdown the nation to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Other state highways and arterial roads have also remained shut. This never-before phenomenon might have just helped India improve its forgettable record on road safety.

More on this later in the article but first here is a complete look on all the major news breaks in the automotive space during the week.

Lockdown may wipeout small players

While the Centre’s call for a nationwide lockdown is punching a hole of Rs 1,200 crore per day in the coffers of the auto component industry, smaller establishments are staring at a wipeout situation with every passing day.

Suppliers of raw materials such as plastic or metal from Tier 3 companies are worst hit due to the shutdown. This is a highly-fragmented segment involving several small players who are engaged in assembly parts.

Electric vehicle sales surge 20% in FY20

Electric vehicle sales in FY20 rose 20 percent to 1,56,000 units as demand for vehicles powered by conventional fuels nosedived.

According to data by Society of Electric Vehicle Manufacturers (SMEV), 1,52,000 electric two-wheelers, 3,400 electric passenger vehicles (ePVs) and 600 electric buses were sold during 2019-20.

BMW India head passes away

BMW Group India head Rudratej Singh breathed his last on April 20 after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Singh, 46, who was affectionately called 'Rudy', joined BMW in August 2019 after spending four years with Royal Enfield, rising to the post of global president.

Jaguar Land Rover to resume production from May 18

Tata Motors owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Thursday said it plans to gradually resume production from May 18, starting with manufacturing plants in Solihull in the UK as well as in Slovakia and Austria.

"In China, we are beginning to see recovery in vehicle sales and customers are returning to our showrooms. Our joint venture plant in Changshu has been in operation since the middle of February," JLR said in a statement.

Triumph launches Street Triple RS at Rs 11.13 lakh

Triumph Motorcycles India has finally launched the 2020 Street Triple RS in India. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the launch took place on the company’s twitter handle in a series of posts.

The Street Triple RS was first unveiled in the UK last year. The 2020 Street Triple RS is not just a refresher. It got upgrades right from the engine, all the way through aesthetics and up to the electronics.

Auto dealers stare at uncertain times

It’s been a month since more than 25,000 auto dealerships across the country’s downed shutters following a call for a lockdown made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the hope of arresting the spread of coronavirus.

Dealerships selling two-wheelers, cars and heavy trucks were barred from engaging in sales activities virtually overnight, bringing all physical activities such as buyer’s visit to the dealership or taking delivery of the vehicle, to a standstill.

Lockdown may have improved India’s abysmal record in road accidents

In 2018 a speeding tourist bus on the highway near the Chhatissgarh-Andhra Pradesh border overturned killing eight people and injuring 10. In February this year nine people lost their lives and 27 other were injured after the driver of a bus failed to negotiate a curve in the Udupi district of Karnataka leading at an accident.

At 1.51 lakh a year India recorded the highest number of deaths by any country caused due to road accidents in 2018, as per data shared by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. India’s share stood at 11 percent in the global statistic of 1.35 million in 2018.

While the Ministry is yet to share data for 2019, the data for 2020 must look dramatically different altogether. Following the nationwide lockdown which started on March 25 (March 22 in Maharashtra) there has been negligible vehicular movement across the country.

Buses, private vehicles, commercial cars, two and three-wheelers and trucks have been barred from coming onto the roads without sufficient reason. Expressways, national and state highways wear a deserted look at a time when they traditionally begin to get busy.

In several Tier 2 towns the district administration even stopped sales of petrol, diesel and CNG to vehicles that are not defined ‘essential’.

Factories, offices, construction work, services industry have remained shut for more than a month.

A back of the hand calculation suggests that by May 3 (when the lockdown is assumed to be lifted) India might see 16,500 fewer road accident-related deaths, which could be the biggest drop in a single year.

Since 2014 when 139,671 deaths were reported due to road accidents India’s poor road safety record has seen a steady climb.

The lockdown has coincided with the annual summer holidays (of April and May) when schools are shut and people generally prepare to visit a tourist place or their native village. As per the ministry’s 2018 findings the month of May recorded the highest number of road accidents followed by January.

2019 witnessed a consolidation of the Ministry's efforts in the field of Road Safety as the Motor vehicle Amendment Bill 2019, amending the Motor Vehicle Act 1988, was eventually passed by both houses of Parliament in August.

The Motor Vehicle Amendment Act 2019 focuses on road safety and includes, among other things, stiff hike in penalties for traffic violations and electronic monitoring of the same, enhanced penalties for juvenile driving, cashless treatment during the golden hour, computerisation/automation of vehicle fitness and driving tests, recall of defective vehicles.

Not all the laws in the said Act have been implemented by all states with the chief being the penalties on traffic rule violation which many states say is very steep. The dilution of the MV Act has thus not arrested the statistic of road accidents in 2019 to the extent it was expected to.