Jaipur, September 7, 2021
Road safety experts from state demanded for formation of road safety authority in Rajasthan for effective coordination and enforcement of road safety act, rules, plans and programs and Shri Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, Transport Minister who delivered the inaugural address as a chief guest and endorsed the demands and said that state government will do whatever required to ensure road safety in Rajasthan including formation of Road Safety Authority, Child Road Safety Policy and Trauma Care policy.
He further said that there is need of making the central and state rules and regulations people’s friendly and practical so that these are easy to enforce. He mentioned that national highways should be safer and more safety measures are needed to save lives of people. He advised to use the road safety funds more effectively for taking innovative road safety measures in the state. He also underlined the importance of good road user behavior and shared his personal experience of road accident victim’s miseries and hardships being faced by their deceased family members. He called upon the road safety experts to come forward for suggestions to ensure road safety in State of Rajasthan.
Speaking during the inaugural session Shri Sushmit Biswas, ADGP, Traffic said that there is a need for evidence-based approach to reducing road accidents. There is need to adopt scientific and best practices approach in highway design and remediation, law enforcement, as well as educational/training interventions. He has given examples of Europe and Singapore for efficient traffic management systems. Road traffic accidents have arisen as a major public health concern that requires a multidisciplinary strategy to address.
While speaking in the workshop Shri Mahendra Soni, Road Safety Commissioner, Transport Department said that the tracking devices and e-learning licensing are the new ideas imposed by the state government. Unless society is coercive, results are bound to be illusive. He mentioned that new software has been coopted by the government with the help of IIT, Chennai for posting of accident data. Organ donor information has been mentioned in the license as one donor can save nine lives. Rajasthan is the first institute to have driving tracks for two wheelers and CIRT, Pune has contributed to form driving track for four wheelers. Rajasthan has a vehicular population of 1.75 crores. He called for cooperation by all building societies, mall owners to act as a partner to the government and help in solving parking issues. The same goes with shops and market associations as well.
While speaking in the occasion Shri George Cherriyan, Director, CUTS International said that the age old Motor Vehicle Act was last amended in 1988. It almost took five years to bring the new Act. With almost 66 sections revised in the new Act, there has been a complete overhauling of the existing Act. Enhancement in penalties has been the key feature of this amendment Act. Almost 1.5 lakhs deaths happens almost every year in the country, which is number one in the whole world and also aggregates as much as 11% of total accidents in the world. Central Minister claimed that there has been a reduction in road accidents in 2020 after the enactment of new Act in 2019 but the experts said that this might be due to the lockdown situation due to Covid 19 also during 2020. Speeding and road engineering has been a major aspect of reasons for road accidents and there must be a due consideration in this direction. Number of deaths in accidents is more between the age group of 18-35.
In the technical session, challenges and way forward related to enforcement, emergency trauma care, education and Good Samaritan Guidelines were discussed in detail and the key road safety provisions which are part of the MVA Act, 2019 were discussed to seek the suggestions of the experts to make a detailed action agenda on the same.
Smt. Nidhi Singh, Joint Transport Commissioner. Transport Department talked about the new road safety initiatives being taken by Transport Department. He specifically talked about the Rajasthan Road Safety Road-Map which is being prepared with the technical inputs of IIT Madras, Integrated Road Accident Database and appreciated the efforts being made by Police Department to upload the data on the same. She talked about innovative initiatives being taken by road safety fund in SMS Trauma Care Centre.
Dr. Girdhar Goyal, Trauma Care expert, SMS Hospital Trauma Care Centre talked about importance of pre hospital care, BLS training and need of developing capacity of enforcement officials in pre hospital care. He explained all the step of trauma care and demanded for an effective Trauma Care Policy in State of Rajasthan.
In the workshop Prerna Aroara and various other road safety experts talked about the Good Samaritan Guidelines, low awareness about the section 134 A and its provisions, effective enforcement of related schemes like giving cash award of Rs. 5, 000 and a certificate of appreciation to all the good Samaritans and putting up boards of guidelines in all the trauma care Centres and hospitals in the state which are missing.
CUTS organised a state level road safety experts meeting on the occasion of passage of Two Years of Motor Vehicle Amendment Act, 2019, to analyze the current opportunities, challenges and way forward. In the meeting more than 35 road safety experts and delegates took part.
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For more information, please contact
Madhu Sudan Sharma, Senior Program Officer, CUTS International. mss1@cuts.org ; 9057520313