Motorists, who are used to coughing up fines for various traffic rule violations, are in for a big surprise as police personnel greet them with goodies, to see a positive change in their attitude and develop safe driving habits in them.
Superintendent of Police C.M. Trivikram Varma was on his toes along with a posse of police personnel stopping cars and other four-wheelers plying on the arterial Chennai-Kolktata national highway.
Sporting a broad smile, they offered roses and chocolates to persuade the road-users to wear seat belts and helmets, which would go a long way in saving their precious lives in keeping with the State government’s goal of zero mishaps on all roads at all times.
The police personnel quickly pasted stickers on the dashboard of cars with slogans like ‘seat belts save lives’, ‘speed thrills but kills’, ‘your near and dear ones are waiting for safe return.’
Voluntary compliance
The whole purpose of the exercise is to ensure voluntary compliance of road rules as imposition of fines in a routine manner had failed to bring about a change in the attitude of the road-users, who grudgingly pay the fine and continue their old ways, the SP explains.
Medians on the expressway, which passes through the thickly populated areas in the city, had been cut at several places by motorcyclists to quickly cross it, risking their lives, he points out. The damaged portions will be closed on a war-footing.
Identifying human errors as one of the main causes of increasing number of road accidents, police personnel stopped all heavy transport vehicles without spare driver and arranged for their overnight stay at motels.
Trucks having a spare driver were provided with water to get themselves refreshed before resuming their journey.
State highways see
more accidents
“We have so far pasted 250 of the 1,000 stickers printed highlighting safe driving methods on the four-wheelers,” adds Medarmetla Sub-Inspector Panduranga Rao, who was busy educating a group of truck drivers on safe driving.
As many as 552 persons died on national and State highways and other roads during 2016 as against 541 persons in the previous year. The number of fatal accidents increased by 23.37 percentage to 190 on State highways.
However, accidents on national highways had come down to 113 in 2016 against 147 in the previous year, according to data compiled by the Police Department.
