ONGOLE: The Prakasam police will geo-tag accident spots in order to identify accident-prone areas on the arterial roads and reduce the number of mishaps, according to Superintendent of Police C.M. Trivikram Varma.
Taking part in the road safety week campaign on the Chennai-Kolkata highway near the Tangutur toll plaza here on Tuesday, he said, “Geo-tagging will not only help exactly locate the mishap spot, but also analyse the cause of mishap and go for interventions, including change in the road design wherever needed and alert the road users about the impending black spots.”
The number of mishaps on the national highway had come down from 733 in 2015 to 637 in 2016 with the police intensifying efforts to curb overspeeding, said the SP, who put reflective stickers on a few passing trucks and gave the drivers tips on safe driving.
Stating that drunken driving was another major cause of mishaps, he said liquor shops on the national and State highways would be removed by April 1 in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.
Resting place for drivers
After the upgrading of the highway into six-lane expressway, the number of head-on collisions had come down. But rear-end collisions had gone up due to parking of vehicles on the road margins, he observed.
He said a resting place for drivers would be developed at Medarametla soon on a six-acre plot identified for the purpose.
Efforts were on to upgrade the accident-prone Ongole-Chimakurthy stretch of the Kurnool road into a six-lane road, he added.
