‘Save and beautify your life and family with a little alertness and attentiveness' was the bottom line message for workers who were engaged in road sweeping.
The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) in association with the city police organised a traffic awareness meeting for sanitary staff at Tummalapalli Kshetrayya Kalakshetram here on Wednesday.
Worst sufferers
Traffic Circle-Inspector (CI) R. Moses listed out the causes of traffic accidents and tips to save the lives. Highways, major junctions were the worst vulnerable areas and road sweepers were the worst sufferers.
The jackets they wear hardly reflect during the nights making it difficult for the drivers to understand that there were ‘men at work.' The workers at junctions should be utmost cautious as the driver who was taking a turn might not be able to notice that sanitary workers were on job, he said.
It was not just car or bike riders who drive with speed, but the dumper bin vehicle drivers were found to be rash drivers.
Any vehicle, on average, should not cross 40 kmph in the city. The ideal was 20 to 30 kmph.
The dumper bin vehicles never move at this permitted speed limits and cause inconvenience to others, he said.
Mr. Moses said that it was observed that many of the sweepers often ponder over something while on duty. They don't watch the vehicles that whiz past them.
“Be alert while on duty. Even if you are correct, sometimes you could be an accident victim. Little alertness can save you from rash and negligent drivers,” he said.
Causing confusion
In most of the road accidents, the sanitary workers suffered injuries just because either they jumped the dividers or ran across the roads confusing the vehicles coming in opposite direction.
Very often the women workers were catching running buses. Instead, start 15-minutes early to duty, he added.
Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) M. Satyanarayana Raju, Assistant Medical Officers of Health K. Sridevi, Z. Srinivasa Rao, Lakshmi Kumari and others were present.
