With more and more cars joining the Indian vehicle park, it is evident that there is greater need now to enforce safety standards on Indian roads, not only with regard to OEM parts but also as replacements or aftermarket parts. One road accident per minute and one death every four minutes is indeed of serious concern. A Government estimate puts national loss due to road accidents at about $20 billion. Many of these accidents are caused by the widespread use of spurious, fake and sub-standard safety critical components. With such a vast geography and large population, the growth in business of sub-standard safety critical components is posing a tough challenge to enforcement agencies.
It is in this background that Hella India’s efforts towards generation of mass awareness on the need for ‘Arresting Road Deaths’ are considered remarkable. In this regard, Hella India is working on a multi-dimensional approach to address the issue of making people aware about the menace of fitting sub-standard and spurious safety critical components through walkathons, toll booth and school campaigns, painting competitions, online debates and demonstrations, to name a few.
One such effort by the Hella India Aftermarket team is to spread awareness about the consequences of using sub-standard and fake components like safety lights and safety horns. Both categories of products mean a lot for Indian drivers, each of whom must know the techniques and engineering behind these components to safeguard lives on roads, with India contributing to 10 per cent of global loss of human lives in road accidents every year.
Hella worked on educating drivers on proper light patterns and appropriate use of light settings in car and on how to distinguish Hella original parts from spurious spares through its Asli-Naqli campaign at the recently held Auto Expo Component Show. Availability of a variety of lights and horns with high variation in prices and many look-alikes has undoubtedly given multiple choices, but, at the same time, has raised doubts among consumers about the quality standard of the products. It is also the responsibility of the manufacturers and the industry to ensure that buyers know about the products and are able to make some easy comparisons so as to distinguish genuine products from spurious items.