Road accident deaths and traffic rule violations have plummeted after the artificial intelligence-powered camera surveillance system was deployed on State’s roads, Minister for Transport Antony Raju said on Friday.
Rule violations, which averaged around 4.5 lakh a day before the introduction of the AI camera system, have dropped to 70,000, and the number of deaths, from approximately 12 per day to 4 or 5 per day. These numbers will further drop with the government giving priority to road safety, Mr. Raju said, inaugurating a stakeholder consultation for ‘Policy Advocacy in Road Safety: Challenges and the Way Forward for Kerala.’
The one-day meeting was organised by Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS International) in association with the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) and the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA).
‘Amendments to rules’
A meeting with health department officials revealed that road accident deaths and the number of victims seeking treatment have dropped significantly since June this year, Mr. Raju said. Motor Vehicles department officers from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra have visited Kerala to study the camera surveillance system so that they can replicate it in their States, he added.
Timely amendments are being made to the Kerala Road Safety Authority Rules, the Transport Minister said. The revisions, in line with the directions of the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, will be ready for implementation within a few weeks, he said.
‘Common policy needed’
Mr. Raju called for a common policy for the country as a whole for speed limits on roads. India needs a common speed limit for six-lane and four-lane roads, district roads and those managed by the local bodies to avoid inadvertent violations, he said.
The Minister warned of stern action against officials of utilities like the KSEB, BSNL and telecom companies in cases where low-hanging overhead cables cause accidents to motorists.
Transport Secretary Biju Prabhakar, IG (Traffic and Road safety Management) G. Sparjan Kumar, Additional Transport Commissioner P. S. Pramoj Sankar, John Panicker (member, KRSA), and Kala P., Director (Road User Safety), KRSA, spoke.
