Road Safety matter of national concern : Gadkari

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari has said that road safety is a matter of national  concern,  and only active co-operation of all stakeholders can reduce the number of road accidents and related fatalities in the country.

Inaugurating a Workshop with Industries on Road Safety in New Delhi on April 27, 2018, the Minister noted with concern that India has the world’s largest number of deaths due to road accidents. He called upon industry leaders and other stakeholders to take a pledge to help bring the number of fatalities down by 50 percent. Gadkari said that in the last few years all stakeholders including the corporates, automobile manufacturers, NGOs and the government have made collective efforts in this direction, resulting in a small reduction in the number of deaths due to road accidents, but a lot more needs to be done in this regard.

Outlining the initiatives and steps taken to improve vehicle safety and overall road safety, the Minister said his ministry has adopted the 4E principles of Education, Enforcement, Engineering and Emergency care to address the problem of road safety. For ensuring vehicular safety, the standards of buses have been upgraded, air bags and speed alert device have been made mandatory for all cars, and every two-wheeler will have ABS to avoid skidding. He said, the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2017, waiting to be cleared by Rajya Sabha, comprehensively promotes safety on the road, according to a PIB release. It would also promote the development of an efficient, seamless and integrated multi-mode public transport system.

Stressing on improved road engineering, Gadkari said that his Ministry has identified 789 black spots on national highways across the country and they are being rectified on priority basis. He called upon the corporates to come forward in identifying more such black spots in the country so that these too can be rectified. He also called upon them to come up with technology that can ensure better and safer roads for the users. In addition to this, the Minister solicited the cooperation of the corporate houses for getting health check-ups done for drivers.

Addressing the workshop, Union Health Minister J P Nadda emphasized on the triple principals of Law, Awareness and Enforcement. He insisted on behavioral, cultural and environmental changes for avoiding accidents. The Minister outlined his ministry’s initiatives on first respondent training, organ donation, etc. He informed that in order to reduce mortality and morbidity occurring due to road traffic injuries, his ministry is implementing “National programme for Trauma Care” with a focus on improving pre-hospital, hospital & rehabilitative services for those suffering injury.

He said, National Injury Surveillance (NIS), Trauma Registry and Capacity Building Centre have been established at Dr. RML Hospital. NIS has been connected to eight Government Hospitals of Delhi for collection of injury related data. Under NHM, support is also being provided for more than 8,800 Dial-108 ambulances, an Emergency Response System (ERS), primarily designed to attend to patients of critical care, trauma & accident victims etc.