PUDUCHERRY: Dr Rohit Baluja, president of the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), on Friday mooted the idea of setting up a traffic management centre to analyze and deal with problems and find solutions to help enforcement authorities.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the “Road to Safety” programme here, Baluja suggested that all stakeholders, including traffic police, officials and PWD and transport department, should be made part of the centre, which should be able to better the management of traffic issues. Pointing out that there were problems aplenty for Puducherry, which lacks proper traffic engineering, he said the enforcement of basic traffic rules would solve a lot of issues.
Dr Baluja said lack of proper signals, missing sign boards and lack of enforcement of traffic rules were complicating traffic issues in the Union Territory, and to make matters worse, traffic police was burdened with responsibilities which are not expected of them. He said the creation of a separate lane for two-wheelers could be considered with the increasing number of vehicles in the Union Territory. Further, he stressed the need for using modern equipment in traffic management, providing proper training to police personnel on law enforcement.
Earlier, as part of a holistic nation-wide campaign, the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) held a programme aimed at training and capacity building of traffic police and other enforcement agencies and commercial vehicle drivers. Under the programme, 100 police officers were trained in the domain of traffic management with special emphasis on enforcement related to drunken driving. Nearly 100 drivers of commercial vehicles were trained about the techniques of defensive driving, including giving them knowledge of basic legislation and the code of conduct on the road.
Dr Rohit Baluja, president of the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), addressed the gathering of police officers. As per the information given by Dr Rohit Baluja, injuries suffered in road accidents are the eighth leading cause of deaths globally claiming more than1.24 million lives annually.
As per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, 1,37,423 persons died due to road accidents in 2013. It is estimated that over 2.6 million serious injuries would have occurred resulting in a social loss of over Rs 1,00,000 crores. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Government of India in the data for 2012 highlighted the fact that 7,835 persons lost their lives due to drunk-drive accidents.
Addressing the gathering, senior Superintendent of Police Dr V J Chandran said traffic rule violations were rampant in Puducherry and police were at the receiving end always in accident cases. He pointed out that 142 lives were lost during the year 2014 while 927 persons suffered injured and out of these 495 were grievously injured.