CHENNAI : Aiming to reduce fatality rates in road accident cases, the Government has planned to launch 32 highway patrolling vehicles across the State. A police official with the State Traffic and Road Safety cell, said these new patrolling vehicles will be closely coordinating with the ambulances to attend to road accident cases. “With this, the highway patrolling team has been briefed about taking the patients to hospitals which are provisioned with trauma care facility. For instance, if a victim suffers head injuries he will be taken to the concerned hospital instead of being shifted from hospitals. This aims to save time especially during the golden hour,” said a senior police officer.
“We had asked for Innova cars so in case there is a delay for an ambulance to reach the victims with minor injures, they can at least be taken to the hospital faster in the patrol vehicle. The vehicles will be fully equipped to handle road accidents,” added the officer.
As per statistics till November 18, 2018, the fatality rates across the state have dropped by 26 per cent and the total number of accidents including small and grievous injuries, have fallen by 2 percent.
Till November 2018, a total of 57,000 accidents were reported across the state against 59,000 in 2017. The number of fatality cases have come down from 15,000 in 2017 to 11,000 till date, according to the official statistics with the Police department.
A slew of measures initiated by the Road Safety cell with the other stakeholders is cited to have paid the dividends. The official attributed the main reason for the decrease in accident cases especially in fatality cases, to the increased coordination with the ambulance and faster medical response during the golden hour.
“Noting the accident data, we had asked the commissioners and superintendents of police concerned, to come up with action plans to reduce the accidents. Following the same, action was taken including installing signboards, barricades being placed at intersections, checking speed limits, better illumination at the highways and clearing parked vehicles,”the official added.“We made sure signboards were in place to ensure the commuters were aware of the road structure to drive safely,” added the officials.
Last week, circulars were also passed on to the SPs across the state to coordinate with the engineering colleges in their districts in identifying black spots and draw action plans to rectify them.Also, regular meetings are being conducted at the district level and detailed reports sent to ensure the work is carried out. Also, there is a close tie-up with the ‘108’ ambulance services and private ambulances services to ensure the victims reach hospital at the earliest.