Employers should lay more emphasis on creating awareness about road safety among drivers in their organisations, said speakers at a meeting on road safety and education here on Friday.
At a meeting organised by SSI Development Society in association with St. John Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association, they noted that the low level of awareness about the need to abide by road rules and safety procedures caused accidents. With more organisations opting to have their own vehicles for transporting the employees, it was important that the employers also educated the drivers on road safety aspects, the speakers said.
According to M.K. Subramanian, secretary of Automobile Association of Southern India, violation of road rules led to accidents. About 70 to 80 per cent of the accident occurred at intersections, he said, adding that speaking on mobile phones while driving was one of the main causes for accidents.
The frequent accidents inside the Neyveli Lignite Corporation township had led to awareness campaigns on road safety there, said C.S. Raju, former General Manager of NLC. He urged drivers to maintain a list of telephone numbers to be reached in case of emergencies.
Every company that has cars and buses should have a system to monitor the drivers as this would help reduce accidents and prevent rash driving, said P.P. Janarthanam, former Additional Chief Inspector of Factories,
Heavy vehicles and cars should have anti-skid braking systems that would delay the braking process and thereby reduce the impact of sudden braking on passengers, he said.
He called for periodic health checks for drivers and installing convex mirrors at sharp bends on the roads as is done in factories.
