Odisha turns to TN to check road accident deaths

BHUBANESWAR: If everything goes as planned, Odisha government may adopt some of the road safety measures undertaken by Tamil Nadu government to check accidents. Wary of the alarming road accidents in Odisha, the state transport department has decided to learn the road safety skills from Tamil Nadu that successfully brought down the fatality rate last year.
State transport department said while accident-related deaths remained a cause of concern in most states, including Odisha, Tamil Nadu managed to bring down the casualty figure through some corrective measures. In Tamil Nadu, the accident deaths fell to 12,213 in 2018 from 16,517 in 2017.
In contrary, Odisha witnessed nearly 11 percent rise in the accident deaths in 2018 compared to 2017. While 4790 accident deaths were reported in the state in 2017, the casualty figure shot to 5315 in 2018. What is more disturbing is that the accident deaths increased by 13 percent in the first five months of 2019 compared to the corresponding period of 2018. At least 2532 persons were already killed between January and May across the state this year. The casualty rate had stood at 2238 between January and May in 2018.
“We will send a team to Tamil Nadu to understand and examine their road safety measures that helped them reduce the fatality rate. If feasible, we will adopt their best practices,” state transport secretary G Srinivas told TOI. Srinivas said Tamil Nadu’s road safety measures would be known only after the Odisha transport officials observe them during their proposed tour.
Sources said the Tamil government Nadu laid stress on strict enforcement drives against traffic offenders, better trauma care centres for accident victims, improved roads and road design (engineering) and tough driving tests so that the driving licence is issued to skilled drivers.
Odisha transport officials said bulk of the accidents in the state occurred due to rash driving, consumption of liquor during drive and use of cell phones while driving. “We also found that the faulty road engineering is another concern. Road engineers are already on the job. We have asked the regional transport officers and police to intensify crackdowns on violators,” a transport officer said.
The transport department last month issued at least 55,000 e-challans to violators across Odisha. “We have asked the police too to intensify the enforcement drive. At many places, the police personnel are issuing manual and e-challans. From October, the manual challan practice will not be allowed. We will make use of technology in enforcement drives and other works of the transport department,” department secretary Srinivas said.