Black spots, that account for 90% of accidents, for 2019 will be finalised by next month by the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA) based on the road accident data for the last three calendar years.
The decision is based on the Supreme Court-appointed committee on road safety that has asked all States to follow the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) protocol for black spot management. As per the protocol, immediate rectifications will have to be completed by April 15, Detailed Project Report (DPR) by June 1 and the rectifications by September 30.
Nodal officer
To follow the protocol and timeframe, the KRSA has designated a nodal officer to coordinate with the stake-holder departments.
The National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (Natpac) has already been roped in as professional consultants to support the black spot identification and field visits for preparation of the short-term improvements and traffic calming measures.
In 2018, 275 black spots were identified by the KRSA based on accident data of three previous years and 78 of them were prioritised and improvements had been carried out. Of the 78 black spots, 46 were in the Public Works Departments (PWD) roads in the State, 18 in National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) four-lane stretches and 14 in the PWD National Highway corridors.
Road corridor
As per the protocol, an accident black spot is a road corridor of about 500m long on which either five road accidents, involving fatalities and grievous injuries, had been reported during the last three calendar years or 10 fatalities during the last three years.
In 2018, the State witnessed 4,259 fatalities, 30,740 grievous injuries, 13,456 minor injuries and 40,260 road accidents.
“We will be taking the accident data of 2016, 2017 and 2018 for identifying the black spots for the current calendar year. We are expecting 250 to 300 black spots and 75 of the identified will be prioritised based on the severity of accidents,” executive director, road safety, KRSA, T. Elangovan told The Hindu .
In view of the findings that 82% of the road accident victims were motorcyclists and pedestrians, the KRSA had decided to focus on these two groups, he said.
Mr. Elangovan said provision of adequate walkway, safe crossing, and reducing the friction between moving traffic and pedestrians would avoid clashes between man and machine (vehicle).
