* Over 1.26 lakh driving licences suspended since 2016 over drivers speaking on the cellphone; round 50,000 suspended or cancelled for drivers being underneath affect; the same quantity suspended for leaping of crimson lights; and three.3 lakh suspended for six frequent site visitors offences.
* IT used to gather real-time information on accidents to assist place ambulances, patrol autos strategically.
* 2,000-odd wine and beer outlets alongside highways shut in 2018 alone.
* Road safety-related work constructed into the annual efficiency appraisal of area officers, street security included at school curriculum, and plans for street security golf equipment in all 7,870 authorities and government-aided faculties.
* Awareness classes for two-wheeler riders with out helmets at nearest site visitors police stations.
These are among the many measures carried out by Tamil Nadu since 2016, bringing down its street accidents by 38% and deaths in the identical by over 54%, profitable the state an award this week from the Centre. Commending the state, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari requested everybody to comply with “the Tamil Nadu model”.
With round two crore driver licences, a bit of over three crore registered autos and one of many largest street networks in India — over 66,000 km — Tamil Nadu frequently tops states in variety of annual street accidents, and ranked second in complete deaths in 2019. Currently, the state accounts for round 13.7% of all street accidents in India and round 11% of street deaths. However, the state believes it has turned a nook.
“The next aim is to have zero deaths. We have not set a date, but we are working on it,” says M Manakumar, Additional Transport Commissioner, Tamil Nadu.
Around 11% of all street accidents on the earth happen in India, killing over 1.5 lakh folks yearly. It was because of these alarming figures {that a} Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety had set a goal of decreasing fatalities by 50% by 2020, with 2016 the bottom 12 months. In 2016, with over 70,000 accidents, killing 17,000 folks (as per the state information), Tamil Nadu was the worst performer. But, previously 4 years, Manakumar factors out, “While the committee had fixed a target of 50% reduction, our state achieved 54.4% by November 2020.” At the tip of 2020, the variety of accidents within the state stood at round 40,000, with fatalities little over 7,000 — regardless of the full variety of autos within the state rising by round 30% within the interval.
One of the profitable measures by the state authorities has been utilizing IT to deploy ambulances and patrol autos each 50 km, to make sure that assist reaches accident victims inside the golden hour, when probabilities of saving a life are the very best — in step with the Supreme Court options. Road designs had been rectified and round 500 accident-prone “black spots” eliminated.
Thanks to the measures, officers say, 76% of the 15,000-odd accident victims attended to by patrolling autos final 12 months acquired therapy inside the golden hour. While Tamil Nadu noticed on a mean 82,000 grievous accidents yearly in accidents, in November 2020, the determine stood at a mere 3,205.
A sum of Rs 65 crore was put aside yearly for such measures, and was distributed by the district collectors to departments like police, highways, well being, training. Officials stated the funds are set to see a hike following an inter-departmental committee’s suggestions.
A senior Central authorities official stated a number of states had undertaken comparable measures, in coordination with the Centre. While giving the award to Tamil Nadu, Gadkari, in reality, introduced development by 5 years, to 2025, of the date to halve street accidents.
However, because the official added, there’s a lengthy street forward. “One thing to note is that numbers in Tamil Nadu are so huge that even after fall, it continues to be at the top.”
Other states are struggling to chop numbers. While Tamil Nadu introduced down accidents by round 7,000 from 2018 to 57,000-odd in 2019, No. 2-ranked Madhya Pradesh might handle a fall of simply 730 to round 50,000 in that point. Uttar Pradesh, No.3, noticed a fall of simply 4 in accidents between 2018 and 2019, when it noticed over 42,000 instances (all figures by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways).
In phrases of discount in accidents, Tamil Nadu was adopted by Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, which noticed a fall by round 2,000-3,000 instances in a 12 months.
