City NGO conducts road safety awareness event for youngsters

Mangaluru: A road safety awareness programme was carried out at Thokkottu by Yuva Munnade, the youth wing of Samvada, an NGO on Saturday.
Yogish Malligemaadu, junior youth mentor, Samvada told TOI that under the leadership of Manjula Sunil and Pavithra of Mangaluru Centre, research on various subjects related to youth is conducted and awareness drives for youth are held. The road safety awareness drive was carried out by members of Samvada after studying and analysing the various accident cases reported in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts in the newspapers. “Though the police keep sending out advisories and conducting drives asking the public to follow rules, we have noticed that several youths fail to do so and die in road accidents,” he said.
The study was conducted based on data available in the public domain from April to September 2022. Among deaths of youths reported due to suicides, drowning, electrocution and accidents, 18.9% were in the age group 15-18 years, 31.5% were in the age group 19-23 years, and 63.49% were in the age group 24-29 years. About 69.2% of accidents took place on service roads and other roads and 30.8% were reported on highways. The study also observed that traffic rules are strictly followed on main roads and prominent junctions. About 80% of the accidents took place because of overspeeding and reckless driving by the youths.
In addition, 65.3 % of the accidents occurred when the youth were busy talking or engaged on their mobile phones or distracted by something, he said.
The campaign was carried out with the support of the police department. The team reached out to nearly 100 people with a roses and handbills on accident analysis. Approximately 60 of those approached had violated traffic laws.
The violators were told that their life is very valuable and asked to read the handbill once they reach home safely, said Yogish.