Professor Murray Mackay, OBE, FREng, is Emeritus Professor of Transport Safety, University of Birmingham, England. He established the Birmingham Accident Research Centre at the University of Birmingham in 1964, and ran it until 1996. He has specialised in in-depth crash investigation, in understanding the epidemiology of traffic crashes, the mechanisms of impact injury and the performance of safety systems and their limitations. For several years he worked with the WHO in developing science-based traffic safety policies in developing countries. He is a founding director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety in Britain and the European Transport Safety Council in Brussels. He is president of the International Research Council on the Biomechanics of Injury (IRCOBI). He has published and broadcast widely on transport safety matters in the UK and elsewhere.  His awards  include, S.A.E. Seigel Transportation Safety Award, N.H.T.S.A. Award for Safety Engineering Excellence, Joint recipient of the Volvo International Traffic Safety Award, The Safety Award in Mechanical Engineering from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, The Award of Merit of the American Association for Automotive Medicine

Road traffic is a major cause of death and injury in the world. It has become a global public health problem in the last few decades. One of the major side effects of motorisation is traffic congestion, noise, and the real fear of traffic injury. In this paper I seek to outline the appropriate technologies and policies which may help India tackle the increasing burden of road traffic injuries. In the end I conclude that an environmentally sustainable transport system and traffic safety are not just complementary to each other, they are mutually dependent. There are a number of technological countermeasures available which, if applied effectively, have the potential of reducing road traffic risks to the same order of magnitude as other modes of travel and other common work and recreational activities in those countries. Where motorcycles and pedestrians dominate, new traffic management solutions are required. The need to move from fossil fuels towards the electrification of traffic presents a great opportunity for new designs of motorcycles, cars, trucks and buses. The use of safety and environmental audits for governments is an important mechanism in evaluating new road developments, traffic management schemes and vehicle technologies.