GUNTUR : Awareness on road safety needs to be spread in villages along the National and State Highways by involving students and shepherds in the SAFAR programme, opined Guntur District Collector (DC) and Superintendent of Police (SP).

At the launch of `Road Safety Week' on Wednesday, SP, B. Shivadhar Reddy, said Andhra Pradesh topped all States in road accidents with 10,550 deaths in 2004. It was in the fourth place in 2002 with 8,428 cases of accidental deaths.

In Guntur district, deaths due to road accidents was 555 in 2005 compared to 160 murders, which explains the seriousness of the problem, the SP said. He promised to involve the police force actively in the awareness programmes all over the district.

Mr. Reddy complimented the Department of Transport for organising the programmes among school children, but said that since vehicle-users was generally at fault in an accident, they too needed to be targeted. Pedestrians must be given priority, but no one cared for them , he said.

Behavioural changes

DC G. Jayalakshmi said taking the programmes to villages was the key to reducing the number of deaths on the highways. Tractors driven by unskilled personnel also added to the problem.

She wanted the Road Safety Council in the district to first concentrate on villages along highways for awareness programmes instead of urban pockets .

She asked the department to be more stringent in issuing driving licenses to students and advised all involved to aim at bringing behavioural changes among vehicle users.

Vendors to be moved

Guntur Municipal Corporation Deputy City Planner Chakrapani said it had identified 1,700 roadside vendors to be shifted to safer zones and given identity cards. This would reduce congestion he hoped.

A team from the Italian city of Bologna, which visited Guntur recently commented that 50 per cent of the vehicles in Guntur had scratches, which explains traffic discipline among vehicle users. The Deputy Transport Commissioner P. Narsaiah presided the meet.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail