The Hindu : `10 per cent increase in accidents'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 10, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

`10 per cent increase in accidents'

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JAN. 9. Nearly 5,000 students from 50 schools of north Chennai today took out a rally as part of the Road Safety Week celebrations.

The City Police Commissioner, R.Nataraj, flagged off the rally at Goodwill Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Thathankuppam, near Villivakkam.

The students carried placards reading `Cellphones can be recharged, but lives cannot be recharged' and `Fly on the sky, not on the road.' The rally, organised by the Chennai City Traffic Police, covered a distance of 3 km and ended at Our Lady of Velankanni Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Villivakkam. The theme for this year's rally was `Do not indulge in overspeeding and rash driving.'

Mr.Nataraj said the week was observed to educate public about traffic norms and ensure accident-free travel.

The Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), G.Uma Ganapathy Sastry, said north Chennai was chosen for the rally, as it was accident-prone. Accidents in the area rose to 14 per cent last year.

Around 50,000 students, including 5,000 from Corporation schools, would be trained in Road Safety Patrol this year.

"The aim is to catch them young and teach them young," Mr.Sastry explained. Painting and essay contests, quiz and debates were held in many schools. Mr. Natraj distributed prizes to the winners.

Cultural show

Students of Mercury Matriculation Higher Secondary School, MKB Nagar, held a cultural show in the school. S. Anand Raj of standard XII received several rounds of applause for two songs he composed to the tune of `devadaiyai kanden' and `manmada rasa' on road safety.

`Valiba rasa' suffered because he got into a bus on the move and travelled on the footboard, according to the song. Transport authorities drew parallel to everyday events from his spoof in which two drunken men become victims of an accident.

R. Samudrapandi, Pulianthope Deputy Commissioner of Police, said in two decades there had been a 10-fold increase in the number of vehicles and the trend was expected to continue. Students of Pearl Matriculation and Cauveri Model Matriculation also participated.

The State Transport department released a road safety guidebook. The Mercury School students received colouring books titled `Draw the safety on roads' and a board game called `Traffic games for kids.'

D. Narayana Moorthy, Joint Commissioner of Transport, distributed prizes to the winners of an elocution contest on road safety.

At an event organised by the members of lorry, call taxi and container-trailer owners' associations, 30 drivers, who had not met with an accident for five years, were presented watches. About 100 drivers with a year of accident-free driving record received uniforms. Spectacles for corrective vision were distributed to 121 drivers. Mr. Sastry, who gave away the uniforms, said there was a 30 per cent fall in accidents in 2002 compared to 2001. In 2003, however, there was a 10 per cent increase and this could be attributed to one lakh new vehicles registered last year. Heavy vehicles, including lorries and water tankers, caused most of the accidents.

He asked the drivers to exercise restraint and suggested that cyclists instal reflectors and rear view mirrors. Last year, only 500 accidents were registered, which was the lowest in a decade.

Mr. Sastry also released a driver's guidebook. A debate was organised for drivers.

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