The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) will step up enforcement in those stretches along the Kovalam-Kollam stretch of NH 47 where people are most accident prone. This is in view of the mounting road accidents in the corridor. Awareness drives will also be taken up, sources said.
Four persons travelling in a car from the airport to their home were killed in an accident involving two cars at Kadambattukonam early on Thursday. Driver fatigue and attempt to overtake another vehicle at a sharp curve reportedly resulted in the head-on collision. The lack of medians along many vulnerable stretches, failure of motorists to maintain lane discipline and misuse of high beam lights are posing problems despite efforts to rectifying engineering defects of these roads.
The MVD will undertake continuous enforcement along the Kadambattukonam-Chathanpara stretch to check over speeding, rash and negligent driving, jumping of yellow lines, dangerous overtaking and other offences.
“We will be pressing into service the mobile enforcement squad comprising a Motor Vehicle Inspector and two Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspectors for this,” a senior officer told The Hindu.
Road Safety experts opined that all stakeholders including the MVD, motorists and voluntary organisations should be roped in for curbing road accidents rather than leaving the job to the police alone. “But setting up of road safety councils alone will not yield desired results. The presence of law-enforcing personnel on the road will ensure road discipline,” a road-safety expert said.
Seven out of 10 accidents taking place in the State are due to errant driver behaviour and can be brought down by enforcement and awareness, says Sony Thomas, chief executive officer, World Road Safety Partnership.
Laying stress on the four Es — enforcement, engineering, education and emergency medical care — can drastically bring down the accident rate, Mr. Thomas, who was instrumental in conceptualising the first 67-km demonstration corridor from Chakka in Thiruvananthapuram to Mevaram in Kollam, said. (The first 67-km demonstration corridor, mooted as part of the World Bank-aided Kerala State Transport Project (KSTP) from Chakka in Thiruvananthapuram to Mevaram in Kollam, failed to take off.)
Two-wheeler patrols for each police station in the stretch can help in better enforcement.
A patrol team trained in mild extrication work and first aid should be set up for every 10 km, he said.
