The Tiruppur district police, in consultation with other government departments, have come up with an action plan to reduce road accidents in the district.
A total of 425 fatal and 1,095 non-fatal accidents were reported across the district upto August 15 this year. Nearly 455 persons died and 1,555 persons sustained injuries in these accidents. During last year, 2,561 accidents were reported in the district in which 651 persons died and 1,852 persons were injured.
According to Tiruppur District Superintendent of Police G. Shashank Sai, the major reasons for the accidents were speeding, shifting of lanes on highways without proper indication, and not slowing down at road junctions.
Efforts have been taken to suspend the driving licence of persons indulging in speeding and drunk driving. In the past eight months, the Police had recommended for the suspension of 20,236 driving licences to the Department of Road Transport, he said.
So far in this year, a total of 1,38,504 cases were registered under The Motor Vehicles Act against persons who involved in traffic rules violations. A fine amount of more than ₹ 1.39 crore was collected.
Black spots
The department has identified 62 accident-prone zones on the national highways, state highways and main district roads and has classified them as black spots. The police and the Highways Department have installed caution sign boards, reflective lights, rumble strips and barricades with blinking lights across major junctions.
An official from the State Highways department said that road safety awareness programmes have been conducted in the identified spots. Measures for geometrical improvements in the accident-prone areas have been taken after consulting a wide range of stakeholders, the official added.
Mr. Sai also added that installation of CCTV cameras to track vehicle movement and a common control room would be implemented once the road safety funds were released.
