BANGALORE: The police will, in a month, start trials of new software to analyse accidents and factors that contributed to them.

After the trials, the police may use it in district police headquarters, three Police Commissionerates (Bangalore, Mysore and Hubli-Dharwad) and the State Crime Records Bureau (SCRB) in three months.

The software is being developed as part of the road safety initiatives under the World Bank-funded Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project (K-SHIP), in consultation with the Police, Public Works and Transport departments.

`RAAS'

The software, called "Road Accident Analysis System (RAAS)", was developed by a Malaysian company, Doxport Software Private Ltd., in consultation with the Computer Wing of the police. K-SHIP Deputy Secretary K.G. Shantaram says RAAS will help study factors that contribute to accidents on highways, other than errors on the part of drivers. Police teams equipped with simputers (handheld computers) that work on RAAS software will visit accident spots.

Details of accidents

At each accident spot, the investigation officer will record factors that contributed to the accident.

The date, time and other details of the accident, the quality and width of the road and the presence or absence of medians, humps and traffic signals will be noted. The data will be used to analyse accidents.

"The police will study accidents that have occurred in the past three years," S.C. Balaraman, Deputy Inspector General of Police, SCRB, says.

The information collected will enable the investigating officer to identify causes of accidents, Additional Director-General of Police (Computer Wing) Kuchanna Srinivasan said.

PWD's task

K-SHIP and the Public Works Department can use the data to identify spots on highways that pose a danger to motorists. This will help the PWD take steps to improve roads.

The software will help prepare a report on accidents that needs to be sent every year to the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways.

In May last year, K-SHIP assigned to Doxport Software the task of preparing software by which extensive data can be collated.

Computer unit's role

The company was asked to improve the format used by the police. It sought the help of the Computer Wing of the police, which collected information from police officials investigating accidents, transport authorities and the PWD authorities to help in the preparation of a five-page format.

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