Decline in road accidents: Rishiraj Singh

April 26, 2014 01:13 pm | Updated May 21, 2016 01:31 pm IST - KASARAGOD:

There has been a visible decline in fatal road accidents this year in the State due to the firm steps taken by the police and the Transport Department against those violating road safety rules, State Transport Commissioner Rishiraj Singh has said.

There was a sharp decline in fatal road accidents and it could be further reduced if all two-wheeler riders used helmets, he said while inaugurating a traffic awareness training seminar for the local police at the Armed Rifles conference hall at Vidyanagar here on Friday.

Two-wheeler riders who used helmets that look like plastic caps should be fined. Effective implementation of traffic rules by the police and the Transport Department had helped in considerably reducing road accidents, he said.

Violators of traffic rules should be punished at par with those committing murder and other criminal activities, he said. The Transport Department had held talks with the Public Works Department in its bid to check accidents due to faulty road construction.

Disputing the general perception that road accidents could be brought down if the density of vehicles were reduced, he said the number of road accidents in the United States with 30 crore people using equal number of vehicles and in Japan which had 11 crore vehicles used by 10 crore people were far less compared to the figure in India.

If the U.S. registered 45,000 fatal road accidents and Japan with a figure of 4,500 a year, India registered 1.50 lakh fatal accidents a year with an average 166 people losing their lives every day in India, the Transport Commissioner said adding accident rates could be drastically brought down if road users abided by safety rules and regulations, he said.

Superintendent of Police Thomson Jose presided over the function.

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