Page 21 - Traffic infratech magazine

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proven solutions. This call for efforts of critical stakeholders,
governments and partners to take including: The police department,
much greater action to implement which seeks to enforce the rules.
these measures.” The health department ensure
Technology-driven solutions that systems are in place to deal
such as big data, machine learning with emergency trauma care and
and simulations can identify helping people access these critical
unsafe intersections, mitigate risks services. The transport department
and address the shortcomings of which ensure quality in providing
transport systems as well thereby, licences and fit vehicles. The
enabling an analysis of public highways department, which seeks
transportation routes. to oversee the conditions on the
In India, as in most countries, road and transport department
traffic police is the only source deciding on who obtains a vehicle
of statistics for monitoring road and whether it receives a fitness
traffic deaths at the population certificate.
level. Earlier this year, the Supreme “In all these avenues, policy
Court-appointed three-member decisions were being taken based
road safety committee led by on rigorous data analytics. In
Justice KS Radhakrishnan praising addition to this, the reason why
Tamil Nadu’s efforts in reducing Tamil Nadu succeeded was that all
fatalities in road accidents. stakeholder departments worked
According to the NCRB, out of as an integrated entity, particularly
1,47,913 accident deaths in 2017 at the field level.
across the country, 16,517 took “At the end of the day, you need
place in Tamil Nadu. In other to save lives. Every resource that can
words, the state accounted for work towards saving lives should
nearly 11% of all road fatalities be available at the time and place
in the country. In the following when required. This involves deep
year, the number of deaths fell to understanding of the processes,
12,213. This is a drop of 24.39%. improving them based on data and
A Arun, Additional Commissioner more importantly having people on
National Road Safety Council as the
apex body to take policy decisions of Police —Traffic, Chennai, said, ground who actually implement
in matters of road safety. “The decrease is all thanks to the them,” said A Arun.
A new report by the World Health
Organization (WHO) indicates road
traffic deaths continue to rise, with
an annual 1.35 million fatalities.
The WHO Global status report on
road safety 2018 highlights that
road traffic injuries are now the
leading killer of children and young
people aged 5-29 years.
“These deaths are an
unacceptable price to pay
for mobility”, said, Dr Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-
General, WHO. “There is no excuse
for inaction. This is a problem with

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