International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | March 2020 | Vol 7 | Issue 3 Page 933 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Chaurasiya SK et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2020 Mar;7(3):933-937 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Awareness and behavior patterns regarding road safety measures among undergraduate medical students of western Uttar Pradesh: a cross-sectional study Shailendra Kumar Chaurasiya, Pankaj Kumar Jain, Sandip Kumar, Prashant Kumar Bajpai*, Nawazish Ali INTRODUCTION More than 1.25 million people die each year on the world's roads and in most countries, the burden of road traffic accidents is increasing day-by-day. 1 It has been estimated that unless immediate action is taken, road traffic accident deaths will rise to the fifth leading cause of deaths by 2020. 2 Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) were the leading cause of death among individuals aged 15 to 29 years and the second leading cause of mortality among 20-24 years. 3 In WHO’s South-East Asia Region, road traffic injuries kill approximately 3,16,000 people each year. Deaths due to road traffic accidents account for one- fourth of total global deaths. The South-East Asia region has a similar road traffic death when compared to the global death rate. Rates of road traffic deaths are higher in middle-income countries in comparison to low-income countries. 4 ABSTRACT Background: More than 1.2 million deaths occur each year on the world's roads. In India, the number of motor vehicles on the road is increasing with the population and economic growth. It has been estimated that if effective and immediate action is not taken, deaths due to road traffic accidents will become the fifth leading cause of deaths by 2020. Objectives was to assess the level of awareness and behavior regarding road safety rules among undergraduate medical students. Methods: The present cross-sectional study was conducted in a Medical College of western Uttar Pradesh. In the present study 200 final and pre-final year, undergraduate medical students were selected with the help of simple random selection, who drive/use vehicles either of their own or others. The study period was from June 2019 to August 2019. Results: About 29 percent of participants responded that they do not follow lane rules while driving. Study showed that 72.1% and 42.0% were aware that what documents to be carried with them while driving among those who attend and did not attend any program on road safety measures respectively. About 58.1 % and 38.2% were aware that penalty for driving without a helmet can be imposed among those who attend and did not attend any program on road safety measures. Conclusions: Awareness of road safety measures among participants was satisfactory, but the gap was also seen between awareness and behavior patterns regarding road safety measures. Keywords: Awareness and behavioral patterns, Medical students, Road safety measures Department of Community Medicine, UPUMS, Saifai, Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, India Received: 15 December 2019 Accepted: 01 February 2020 *Correspondence: Dr. Prashant Kumar Bajpai, E-mail: prashantbajpaillrm@gmail.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20200944