State sees sharp drop in road accident fatalities

Fatalities in road accidents in the State have diminished by 54% when in comparison with the bottom 12 months of 2016.

The complete variety of fatalities dropped from 17,218 in 2016 to 10,525 in 2019. As many as 7,287 fatalities had been reported till November 30 final 12 months.

The State had been seeing a steep rise in the variety of accidents, the variety of deadly accidents and the variety of individuals injured in accidents.

At one level, the figures had been the best in the nation. In 2008, the variety of individuals who died in deadly accidents was 12,784. It saved rising 12 months after 12 months and reached 17,218 in 2016.

Since 2016, the State has been implementing a collection of steps like amassing sturdy information on accidents, figuring out and eliminating black spots, offering speedy emergency response and healthcare to these affected, educating motorists concerning the significance of protected driving, and efficient enforcement by the Police and Transport Departments.

Tamil Nadu was adjudged the Best Performing State in Road Safety for 2 years — 2018 and 2019 — and obtained an annual award from the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) for 2 consecutive years.

The award was offered by Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari to the State, represented by Inspector General of Police, Traffic and Road Safety, Pramodh Kumar, on Monday.

Based on the Road Accident Report 2019, printed by MoRTH, the State registered the utmost discount in accident-related deaths — 1,691 in 2019, when in comparison with 2018, registering a decline of 13.84% over the earlier 12 months. So, it was adjudged the Best Performing State in phrases of road security.

Millenium objective

“The State has already achieved the millenium goal — to reduce accidents by 50% by 2025. Compared to the base year of 2016, when the State had the highest number of accidents, at 17,218, we have brought the figure down by 54%, and have been consistently taking steps to reduce accidents,” Mr. Kumar instructed The Hindu.

“Some institutional changes made since 2016 really helped us reduce fatalities. Performance on the road safety front was made a critical input while analysing the performance of field officers in the annual performance report. This made them accord top priority to traffic and road safety work.

“An Additional Superintendent of Police-level officer in every district was appointed as a nodal officer for traffic and road safety work,” Mr. Kumar mentioned.

Integrated database

The State has additionally launched the Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD), a strong road accident database administration system developed and carried out with the assistance of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, NIC. This permits the State and the Centre to grasp data associated to road accidents, analyse the foundation reason for such accidents, and develop and implement ‘data-led’ road security interventions to scale back accidents.

Professor Venkatesh Balasubramanian of IIT Madras, who was part of the staff that helped construct the Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Care Initiative (TAEI), a novel trauma care programme, mentioned, “The success of Tamil Nadu is a validation of the multi-departmental data-driven systems approach to road safety. It is notable that this effort has been recognised and is being templated for implementation across the country.”