Harman Singh Sidhu

Founder

Harman Singh Sidhu is the founder of ArriveSAFE [1], an Indian non-profit working on road safety & civic from Chandigarh.

Harman Singh Sidhu is an Indian road safety campaigner and the founder and president of ArriveSAFE, a non-governmental organisation based in Chandigarh that works on road safety and sustainable transport. He was paralysed below the neck in a car crash in the Himalayan foothills in October 1996 and has used a wheelchair since.

ArriveSAFE is registered as a society under Act XXI of 1860. Its work includes advocacy for safer roads, the development of road safety education material, awareness campaigns and support for the digitalisation of traffic enforcement. Sidhu prepared a road safety manual for the Chandigarh administration intended to encourage safe driving practices among road users.

Accident and early work

Sidhu was preparing to emigrate to Canada when, on a visit to Renuka Lake in the Himalayas in October 1996, his car fell into a gorge. He sustained a spinal injury and has been paralysed below the neck since. He has described the encouragement of a mentor, Amitabh Dhillon, as decisive in his recovery of purpose, and turned to research and activism on road safety and sustainable transport in the hope of preventing similar injuries.

Career

Sidhu founded ArriveSAFE and has led it as president. The organisation campaigns for enforcement of traffic law, road engineering improvements and safer vehicle standards, and produces educational content on road safety. Sidhu has worked with international bodies including the World Health Organization, the United Nations and the World Bank, and has appeared in two BBC documentaries. He has spoken about road safety at a TED event.

He has served on committees of the Indian Roads Congress and has been a member of the Global Alliance of NGOs for Road Safety, the Chandigarh State Road Safety Council and the Punjab State Road Safety Council.

Recognition

Sidhu received the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in 2018 and the Volvo Sustainable Mobility Award, presented by the Swedish embassy, in 2013 and 2015. He has also received a state award from the Chandigarh administration.[2][3][4][5]

ArriveSAFE

ArriveSAFE is a registered nonprofit working on road safety and sustainable transportation advocacy in India, addressing the fact that India accounts for roughly 2% of the world's motor vehicles but over 11% of road traffic deaths. It works on policy advocacy, legal framework reform, and on-ground training and consultancy, and is a member of the State Road Safety Councils of Punjab and Chandigarh and the Indian Road Congress.

ArriveSAFE reports the following, on its own site:

Besides the awareness campaigns, we also invested in high quality reflectors on all NMVs as an incentive and to ensure that the NMVs are visible. In this endeavor, we targeted two colonies/slums in the cities of Chandigarh & Jalandhar and reached out to more than 4,000 NMVs users and their families.