The city Traffic Police will soon launch Road Safety Clubs to ensure the safety of students. According to the police, the Road Safety Clubs or Traffic Clubs will be formed at every school and will consist of trained traffic wardens.
Selected students from the schools located near busy roads will also be given training so as to help other students. A decision in this regard was taken by City Police Commissioner of K S James at a seminar on Traffic Awareness held in the city on Wednesday.
The seminar, that was attended by the parents and representatives of the school management, focused on road safety measures. During the seminar, headmistress of St Antony’s School, Kacheripady, stated that it was extremely difficult for students to cross the roads owing to barricading carried as part of the Kochi Metro Rail-related work and subsequent heavy traffic.
The police officials said they will give special attention to such areas and police personals will be deployed once the schools reopen. “The Traffic Police will assign more policemen in busy junctions to take care of the school students during the peak time,” said Deputy Police Commissioner Muhammed Rafique.
The seminar also pointed to the necessity to give awareness to children from home as well as from schools. “The students should be give awareness on importance of sticking to the rules and instructions meant for road safety. It is a vital responsibility of every citizen to follow the traffic laws and it is not something that should be practised only in the presence of a police officer,” the seminar observed.
The majority of the parents who took part in the seminar said one of the main causes for the recurrence of accidents in the city was the rash driving by the private bus drivers. Taking this into consideration, the police authorities are planning to arrange a special seminar for bus drivers to make them more alert about the road safety issues.
The City Police is also planning to introduce a new SMS service, through which the public can send their complaints and suggestions to the Police directly. Complaint boxes will also be placed in major areas of the city to facilitate the public to register their grievances. The police officials also suggested that the school authorities properly utilise the complaint boxes and the toll-free numbers meant for the safety of the students. “An active protection group which includes the principal, PTA executives, the police officials and selected student representatives should be formed at schools,” they added.
The school authorities should also make sure that the students are not dropped outside the school premises on their school buses. The protection group should also keep a check on the drug-peddlers and eve-teasers loitering near the school compound.
“The children should be given the freedom to share the day’s experience, be it good or bad, with their teachers or parents. This would help the parents to know their child better and in preventing any sort of ill-treatment that they face,” the seminar observed.
