The Ministry of Roads, Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has developed the portal named ‘e-DAR’ (e-Detailed Accident Report).

Why such move?

• Road accidents continue to be a leading cause of death, disabilities and hospitalization in the country despite our commitment and efforts.
• India ranks first in the number of road accident deaths across the 199 countries and accounts for almost 11% of the accident related deaths in the World.

E-DAR portal

• It is designed in consultation with insurance companies to provide instant information on road accidents with a few clicks and help accelerate accident compensation claims, bringing relief to victims’ families.
• Digitalised Detailed Accident Reports (DAR) will be uploaded on the portal for easy access.
• The web portal will be linked to the Integrated Road Accident Database (iRAD).
• From iRAD, applications to more than 90% of the datasets would be pushed directly to the e-DAR.
• Stakeholders like the police, road authorities, hospitals, etc., are required to enter very minimal information for the e-DAR forms.
• Thus, e-DAR would be an extension and e-version of iRAD.

Its working

• The portal would be linked to other government portals like Vaahan and would get access to information on driving licence details and registration of vehicles.
• For the benefit of investigating officers, the portal would provide geo tagging of the exact accident spot along with the site map.
• This would notify the investigating officer on his distance from the spot of the incident in the event the portal is accessed from any other location.
• Details like photos, video of the accident spot, damaged vehicles, injured victims, eye-witnesses, etc., would be uploaded immediately on the portal.
• Apart from the state police, an engineer from the Public Works Department or the local body will receive an alert on his mobile device and the official concerned will then examine the accident site.

Check on fake claims

• The e-DAR portal would conduct multiple checks against fake claims by conducting a sweeping search of vehicles involved in the accident, the date of accident, and the First Information Report number.

Various moves to curb road accidents

• Several initiatives have been taken by the MoRTH which continues to implement a multi-pronged road safety strategy.
• It is based on Education, Engineering, Enforcement and Emergency Care consisting inter-alia of setting up Driver training schools, creating awareness, strengthening automobile safety standards, improving road infrastructure, carrying out road safety audit etc.
• High priority has been accorded to rectification of black spots.
• A major initiative of the Ministry in the field of Road Safety has been the passing of the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act, 2019.
• It focuses on road safety include, inter-alia, stiff hike in penalties for traffic violations and electronic monitoring of the same, enhanced penalties for juvenile driving, cashless treatment during the golden hour etc.

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