Spotlight on Tamil Nadu’s data-driven road safety initiatives

Union Ministry and other States recognise its efforts

According to statistics of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in 2017, of the 1,47,913 accident deaths in India, 16,157 were in Tamil Nadu. However, road accident deaths in the State came down in 2018 by 24.39%, to 12,213, the biggest decrease recorded in the country.

This is said to have been possible due to a unique data-driven approach taken by various stakeholders such as the police and the health, transport and highways departments in the State. The Supreme Court-appointed committee on road safety, and other States have recognised the efforts in Tamil Nadu.

Senior officials from the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Additional Director General of Police of Karnataka, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh were at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) to understand the Tamil Nadu model of integrated data-driven road safety initiatives. The Tamil Nadu team had the DGP and several senior police officials, Trauma Commissioner from the Health Department and senior officials from the highways and transport departments, and IIT-M faculty.

An official of the MoRTH told

The Hindu : “Around 1.50 lakh fatalities through road accidents are reported across India. This requires us to perform deep analysis on accident rates and take initiatives to bring down the numbers. The idea is to have targeted interventions that is based on data.”

Venkatesh Balasubramanian of the Engineering Design Department, IIT-M, and advisor, Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Care Initiative (TAEI), demonstrated some applications developed by the RBG Labs, Department of Engineering Design, IIT-M.

Prof. Venkatesh said: “ As a next step, the Tamil Nadu police have worked with RBG Labs, IIT-M and developed the Transportation Accident Reporting App (TARA). With its emphasis on usability and functionality, good quality road accident data can be collected.”