The Tamil Nadu police are embarking on a mission to modernise the road accident management system (RADMS) under the aegis of the World Bank. The initiative seeks to facilitate digital mapping of accident-prone stretches across the State and improve road engineering.
Going by the RADMS data in the last four years, there were, at least, 67,000 road accidents, resulting in the death of 16,175 people each year. On an average, 44 lives were lost every day in 185 accidents. The system was first established in 2009 at a cost of Rs. 150 crore with World Bank funding, and more than 3 lakh accident-related data entries were updated in the last four years. “Now, there is a need to modernise and upgrade RADMS for real-time uploading of accident data and for easy retrieval,” S. Rajendran, Additional Director-General of Police (State Traffic Planning Cell), said.
Talking to The Hindu , he said the process of modernising the RADMS had commenced with a World Bank fund of Rs. 550 crore. The exercise would include upgrading of the software, augmentation of Random Access Memory (RAM), etc. There is pertinent need to upgrade the system, as all district police headquarters, police commissionerates and 1,440 police stations access the system for feeding the accident data.
Under the new RADMS, information could be fed by police stations, District Crime Record Bureaus, and City Crime Records Bureaus, while the STPC would ensure the quality and accuracy of the data. Other agencies such as local bodies, the State and National Highways Departments and the Transport Departments would also be in a position to upload the details, retrieve accident data and work on improving road conditions in accident-prone stretches. Mr. Rajendran said the upgraded RADMS would have features for updating the status of the accident victims. The modernisation programme would come with an assured periodical maintenance in the form of an annual contract.
