Safety tips from the roads of Tamil Nadu

The Motor Vehicles Act, 2019 is here and the heavy penalties have made it to the headlines. An offender in Odisha has been fined Rs 47,000, the highest so far. In this context, it needs to be mentioned that Tamil Nadu has been a model state for road safety. This was acknowledged by Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari during his speech in Parliament. He said that the number of accidents had come down by around 15% in Tamil Nadu during the last five years.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, road accident deaths in TN decreased from 16,157 in 2017 to 12,213 in 2018—a drop by 24%, the highest in the country. Early this year, a Supreme Court-appointed committee on road safety, led by Justice K S Radhakrishnan, had also praised Tamil Nadu. The committee had credited the drop in the number of accidents to the synergy between the departments of police, health, transport and highways in extensively mapping data and following it up with vigilance.

The state’s data-driven road safety measures have attracted the attention of officials in the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The state has also been dividing roads to 2 km-grids to record accident hotspots and updating it onto the Tamil Nadu Geographical Information System. The police and health departments then position ambulances and identify locations for public hospitals equipped with critical care units accordingly. In Tamil Nadu, police had not subjected women drivers to breathalysers. Not anymore. Reports say that police vigil has transcended the gender barrier. Perhaps, it requires this iron will to enforce rules. Once the new set of penalties come into place, one can expect TN to better its own record.
So, states require a twin-pronged approach to improve road safety numbers. One is to punish errant motorists with heavy fines, (the new Act has done this), and the other is to improve infrastructure and create awareness. The Centre could also create a sense of competition among states to better their road safety records.