Highlighting the appalling accident rate on roads and what individuals can do to stop it, the Transport Department is involving various groups and sections in the Road Safety Week kicked off at the RTA office on Tuesday.
As part of the drive, Deputy Transport Commissioner, Krishna, A. Mohan, released posters, pamphlets, stickers and booklets to educate various sections on road safety norms.
“One of the booklets has been designed exclusively for kids with cartoons depicting the hazards of road safety rule violations,” said Mr. Mohan at a press conference.
Six prachara rathams (propaganda vehicles) with prominent display of banners and equipped with a public address systems which would play songs on the road safety themes, would move around places to propagate the message.
“A total of 29 vehicles have been pressed into service in Krishna district to achieve the target. Of them, 19 are vans and 10 are auto-rickshaws, which will cover nearly 1800 to 2,000 villages in the 58 mandals across the district,” he said.
This year, the number of vans being utilized for the purpose has been enhanced to 19 against use of 10 vans last year. “We want to penetrate each village this time,” said Mr. Mohan.
This year’s theme being ‘Drunken Driving’ with a slogan of ‘Stay Alive, Don’t Drink and Drive’, the accent is on inculcating a sense of responsibility among drivers.
The prachara rathams were flagged off simultaneously at Vijayawada, Gudivada and Nandigama RTO offices besides at the unit offices in Machilipatnam, Nuzvid, Vuyyuru and Garikapadu check-post.
Every day, there would be two training sessions -- one for professional drivers and the other for students of schools and colleges.
The prachara rathams equipped with audio-visual modes would show films on a projector. “The basic idea is to educate the masses on the common mistakes a driver commits, which, at times, results in accidents,” he said.
Informing that Krishna district alone witnessed 700-750 road accidents in the year that just went by, Mr. Mohan said almost 50 per cent of the department staff was deployed on duties related to the Road Safety Week to reach out to a wider section of society.
RTOs C.H.V.K. Subba Rao, R. Satyanarayana, Sridevi, and Sivalingaiah were present.
