In view of the spurt in fatalities in road accidents during the past two months in the State, the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has prepared a three-month Road Safety Action Plan (RSAP) to bring down accidents. It has also approached the Kerala Police for a joint drive to bring to book the erring motorists.
The spurt in fatalities in the past two months is after a dip in accidents and accident deaths in the State. As per statistics available with the State Crime Records Bureau, road accidents in the State have come down from 39,420 in 2016 to 38,462 in 2017 and fatalities from 4,287 to 4,035. The number of grievously injured too came down from 30,100 to 29,471 and that of the injured from 14,008 to 12,840 in 2017.
Stern enforcement measures and intensive campaign by the MVD and the police to enforce the traffic and motor vehicle rules had resulted in the reduction in fatalities in Thiruvananthapuram City and Rural, Alappuzha, Ernakulam Rural, Idukki, Thrissur City and Rural, Malappuram, Kozhikode Rural, Wayanad, and Kasaragod.
Accidents came down in Thiruvananthapuram City, Kollam Rural, Pathanamthitta, Ernakulam City and Rural, Idukki, Thrissur Rural, Palakkad, Malappuram, and Kozhikode City.
From third week
However, the increase in fatalities and accidents in the past two months has forced the law-enforcers to take intensify the drive to ensure road discipline. “We have decided to launch the drive in the third week of this month itself,” Joint Transport Commissioner Rajeev Puthalath told The Hindu .
Anil Kant, State Transport Commissioner, who is also the Road Safety Commissioner, has sought a joint drive with the Kerala Police to ensure road discipline and to bring down accidents. Mr. Kant has asked Inspector General of Police, Traffic, Manoj Abraham to look into whether the joint drive by the two agencies could be carried out at least once in a month. As per the plan worked out by the MVD, special checking and campaign for reducing accidents will be launched from January 15 to March 31. The Joint Transport Commissioner said instructions had been given to all the Deputy Transport Commissioners and the Regional Transport Commissioners to stick to the plan schedule.
In addition to 34 enforcement squads, squads under RTO and others will join the checking to be carried out across the State.
