The Transport Department and Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety (BIGRS) signed an agreement to implement world’s best practice measures that can help in preventing crashes and save lives in the Bengaluru Metropolitan Region. As part of the agreement, various measures, such as enforcing laws on speeding, drunk driving, wearing helmets, building safer roads, and using data from high quality monitoring and evaluation systems for policy and planning, will be implemented, said a release.
Rajender Kumar Kataria, Principal Secretary of the Transport Department, said that through the participatory agreement, government agencies in Bengaluru and the technical partners within BIGRS will work together to implement evidence-based interventions to save lives. Bengaluru is one of the 30 cities that will participate in the initiative.
“Every year, nearly 1.3 million people are killed on the world’s roads. By implementing proven, data-driven interventions, these deaths are nearly entirely preventable. We applaud the Karnataka government for taking the steps needed to save lives,” Kelly Larson of Bloomberg Philanthropies said in the release.
The release stated that traffic crashes are the eighth leading cause of death worldwide, and the leading cause of death of the world’s youth. Across the globe, 20-50 million people are seriously injured, often with permanent, debilitating injuries. “From 2015 to 2019, BIGRS supported a global network of 10 cities and five countries to implement data-driven interventions to reduce road traffic fatalities and injuries. Bloomberg Philanthropies expanded this programme in 2020 and will continue to partner with some of the world’s largest cities to improve road safety. Up to 30 cities, including Bengaluru, and 15 countries will participate in this phase of the initiative from 2020 to 2025,” states the release.
