To analyse causes of road accidents and to devise safety interventions to reduce such road crashes, Andhra Pradesh has become a part of the Central Accident Database Management System.
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The new project, called Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD), has been developed by Indian Institute of Technology-Madras and is being implemented by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
“IRAD is a comprehensive web-based Information Technology (IT) solution which will enable departments like Police, Transport, Road Engineering/Highway and health wing personnel to enter details of a road accident from different perspectives, such as investigation, road engineering and vehicle condition,” said Additional Transport Commissioner S.A.V. Prasada Rao.
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Every stakeholder and department has a role to play in this system, he said, explaining that in the event of a road accident, the police are responsible for visiting the spot and counting the number of accidents. Analysing the vehicle volume/pressure on a particular stretch is the task of the Transport Department, and the road engineering wing would look into the engineering faults responsible for the mishaps.
“The Health Department will have to maintain a record of fatal and non-fatal accidents,” he said.
An initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the project was first piloted in the States with highest fatalities from road accidents. The IRAD was proposed in 2019 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of the project had to be postponed.
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“Though IRAD was launched in the State around three months back, it has started taking shape only now,” said Mr. Prasada Rao.
The new system will not only create a Centralised Accident Database, but also help the departments involved to identify and analyse the chief causes leading to road accidents and improve road safety measures effectively, he said.
Under IRAD, he said, details including causes of road accidents, road engineering defaults, negligence on the part of individuals and patterns in accidents would be studied and strategies would be formed accordingly to reduce the number of accidents.