At over 4,000 deaths a year, the number of people dying due to road accidents in Kerala is over ten times the number of murders (about 400) in the State. This situation calls for an urgent need to focus on accident-prevention measures in all districts, Transport Commissioner S. Sreejith, holding charge as Road Safety Commissioner, said here on Tuesday.
This is apart from the around 20,000 people who suffer permanent disability. Rule enforcement can avert accidents by 20% while the rest 80% can be preventable through proper road engineering and education (which go on to make the three E’s). There are internationally accepted norms and the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA) can do much to bring about convergence of accident-prevention measures, he says.
Mr. Sreejith was delivering the keynote address at a day-long conference on ‘Accident prevention and post-crash management in Kerala’ organised by the authority, which was attended by enforcement personnel, volunteers, and NGOs.
Mr. Sreejith suggested that those who drive in a rash and negligent manner should be directed to interact with victims of road accidents for a week, to learn about the life they led. He released a set of guidelines readied by the KRSA on the operation of emergency ambulance vehicles.
Drawing parallels with how an aggressive awareness campaign on the ill effects of smoking lessened tobacco use, Director of NATPAC Samson Mathew says annual targets must be fixed to lessen the number of (42,000) road accidents and 4,000 deaths on Kerala’s roads by at least 10% each year.
“ Ernakulam, which records the highest number of accidents and deaths, is an apt location to kickstart accident-mitigation measures,” he says.
Addressing the conference online, Minister for Public Works P.A. Mohamed Riyas cited the need to roll out accident-mitigation measures in the over 4,000 black spots identified across the State by NATPAC.
Ernakulam MLA T.J. Vinod inaugurated the event.
Making an impassionate plea to drive safely, Kothamangalam native Jyotish narrated how a lorry accident in 1994 left him wheel-chair bound. “There were times when I thought of ending my life. A few kind hearts kept me going. I now eke out a living selling lottery tickets,” he says.
Executive Director of KRSA T. Elankovan, Additional Transport Commissioner Pramoj Shankar, and Deputy Transport Commissioner Shaji Madhavan were among those who spoke.
