Fatalities in road accidents have dropped 24.39%, thanks to the efforts of various stakeholders such as the police, health and transport officials. The efforts were recognised by the Supreme Court-appointed committee on road safety, which recently suggested that other States emulate Tamil Nadu’s initiatives.
A high number of accident deaths was reported in 2017 in the State. As per the State Crime Records Bureau’s statistics, out of 1,47,913 accident deaths in India that year, 16,157 occurred in Tamil Nadu — that is, over 10.9% of the fatalities. The deaths came down to 12,213 in 2018.
The road accident trend in districts is being reviewed by the Director General of Police (DGP), Law and Order T.K. Rajendran with DGP Traffic and Road Safety Cell Karan Singha and Special DGP Vijay Kumar. A senior policer said, “These senior officers evaluated the performance of staff across the State, forming a structured review mechanism with suggestions for improvement, and sending a strong message across the force. As a result, the emphasis on implementing traffic rules strictly was communicated across the ranks.”
Crackdown helps
A crackdown on offences such as speeding, drunk driving and carrying passengers in goods carriers as well as strict implementation of compulsory helmet and seatbelt rules contributed in a major way to reducing fatalities, officers claimed.
Venkatesh Balasubramanian of the Engineering Design Department, IIT Madras and Adviser, Tamil Nadu Accident & Emergency Care Initiative (TAEI) said instead of operating in silos, a comprehensive sysems approach to transportation safety was being pursued in Tamil Nadu. “This started with the creation of the TAEI under the Health Department. The other stakeholder departments and their initiatives dovetailed to create an ecosystem that showed results. All stakeholder departments worked in close coordination towards a common goal,” he said.
TAEI integrated 26 government medical college hospitals, 31 district headquarter hospitals and 21 government hospitals working in strategic locations across the State. Every TAEI centre has a designated trauma nodal officer and nurse coordinators on duty at all times. Health officials said earlier, one had to rush the victim to the nearest hospital for making an entry of accident report and only then, the victim would be taken to a district hospital or big hospital. In the new system each hospital has trained staff who are skilled and protocols for management established. This not only helps give good care but also cut various delays.
Darez Ahmed, Trauma Care commissioner, said, “We have collected data of all road accidents and uploaded that onto an application called Tamil Nadu Geographical Information System(TNGIS). A grid was made for the State. Then we identified deadliest places in the State which accounts for almost 40% of total deaths and shared the details with the police. We change them as per spacio-temperal database. We have improved patrolling. There is an effort to also improve availability by dynamically allocating them. By this, the ambulance location is decided based on past experience of fatalities.”
