Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Safety plan to be tested on NH stretch

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A comprehensive road safety project will be implemented on the 67-km Chakka-Mevaram stretch of the NH 47 to demonstrate the best practices in road safety education, enforcement and post crash management.

The project will be implemented with the support of the Police, Motor Vehicles, Public Works, Education and Health Departments and local self-government institutions.

The one-year demonstration project will be evaluated and monitored by the Road Safety Authority.

The stretch was selected as the accident rate here is almost three times that of the NH passing through the State. The NH accounts for less than 1 per cent of the road network in the State.

While the accident rate on the NH in the State is 7.17 per km, it is 20.2 per km on the Chaka-Mevaram stretch. As many as 194 deaths, 1,047 grievous injuries and 930 simple injuries due to accidents had been reported from the stretch in the 12 months ending April 2007.

Chief Executive Officer, World Road Safety Partnership, Sony Thomas, who is coordinating the project, said that the aim of the venture was to target four Es (enforcement, engineering, education and emergency medicare) and bring down the accident rate.

Areas under eight police stations and 10 panchayats come under the stretch.

A survey revealed that speeding, head-on collision, drunk driving, sleepy drivers, poor road conditions were the reasons for the accidents. It was found that six of the nine major causes of accidents were related to driving behaviour.

For strict enforcement of rules, motorcycle patrols will be introduced to cover every nine km. The patrols can be spotted round-the-clock every four to five minutes. They will be equipped with facilities to provide first aid and will have digital camera, breath analyser and extrication equipment.

The police personnel will be given training as they will be the first to reach the spot in case of an accident.In addition to the patrols, two additional highway patrols will also be introduced.

About 75 per cent of the accidents on the stretch go unreported. For ensuring recording of accidents and its analysis, a geographical Kerala accident management system (GEOKAMS) will be introduced at the eight police stations.

Bus bays and crash barriers were set up and raised pavement markers installed under the Kerala State Transport Project on the stretch. Road safety auditing was also done. Under the engineering aspect, the uneven shoulders of the road will be filled.

To create public awareness, programmes will be organised at 21 small towns in the project area. Autorickshaw and taxi drivers will be trained to render first aid. The junior road safety programme will be reintroduced in schools. Local cable networks will be roped in to spread the message of road safety.

For emergency medical care, three ICU ambulances with emergency medical technicians trained by the American Heart Association will be introduced. An SOS call centre will be set up either with the telephone numbers 102 or 911 to provide help to accident victims.

The distress calls received at the proposed call centre will be forwarded to the Kerala Fire and Rescue Services, highway patrols, ambulance services, hospitals and NGOs in the locality.

Five policemen and two fire force personnel in each district will be trained to provide first aid and rescue work as part of the project.

A six-member committee of officials headed by the Secretary (Public Works) has been set up to implement the project. The expense involved will be pooled among the stakeholders.

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