THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City Traffic Police are all set to curtail the number of accidents by making the people more aware about traffic rules and the necessity to obey them.
It was about a month ago that the Traffic Police started the awareness programmes, ranging from distribution of pamphlets to writing on sands.
The most interesting aspect is that students are the major tools for implementing the programme. Members of the Road Safety Club of schools were given practical training even in traffic control, which presented a rare sight to the public the other day. The ‘student cops’ controlled traffic at General Hospital Junction and also gave coaching to some two-wheeler riders about the need for wearing a helmet.
The awareness programme started as part of the Road Safety Week has seen a big impact. “It is among the students that the awareness programmes has made much impact,” Assistant Police Commissioner D Vijayan said.
Another fact that the police counted as the success of the awareness programme is the fall in the number of cases registered during the New Year-eve celebrations and they are happy that no accident deaths occurred.
Selected students from some schools were brought to the traffic control room and photos of children and others who were crippled in accidents were shown to them. The impact it had among students was unimaginable.
“Students who used to ride two-wheelers in their own hasty way with and without licence ceased riding which, in turn, made their parents also think about the consequences of students riding,’’ he said.
At control rooms, the students were enlightened, with visuals, on the procedure of imposing fine, the troubles which increase with the rising number of vehicles, the problems of rash driving and the operation of cameras at traffic signals.
“Through students, the message should be spread that it is now easy to punish anybody who violates traffic rules. Earlier, a victim was needed for that. Now, with the installation of cameras, the visuals they capture could be used as documents before court,” said Vijayan.
Pamphlets were distributed among the members of the Road Safety Club who circulated them among the entire students of schools. The content of the pamphlets included the necessity to avoid drunken driving, the need to obey traffic rules and the like. The Traffic Police also conducted extensive awareness classes in schools.
A different kind of awareness programme was conducted at Shangumugham on Sunday. Students from Fine Arts College wrote on the sand about the traffic rules and the need to obey them. Shangumugham Assistant Commissioner K S Vimal said that the programme was organised on Sunday in order to get maximum attention.