Safety reforms to make roads safer for commuters

The State government may soon put in place a system wherein transport cost of private vehicles carrying an accident victim to the nearest hospital would be reimbursed.

Further, cashless treatment for 48 hours would be provided to accident victims in trauma care centres. Another measure being planned is to make it mandatory for all commercial vehicle drivers to undergo a course in first aid.

These are some of the policy initiatives planned to control the incidence of road accidents and ensure safe travel for road users.

The government has notified the ‘Karnataka State Road Safety Policy - 2015,’ which envisages to put in place a multi-pronged strategy to reduce road accidents by 25 per cent and fatalities by 30 per cent by 2020.

Karnataka stood third in the country next only to Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, with 43,694 roads accidents being registered in 2014.  There were 10,444 casualties. The policy, notified by the Transport department on September 21, states that the government will take steps to ensure better coordination among transport, home, public works, health, education, urban development, excise, town planning departments to manage and coordinate all activities regarding road safety.

As a first step, the government plans to strengthen its road crash database system to help stakeholders develop road safety programmes.

Connected to database
At the ground level, the policy states that all district hospitals, trauma care centres, 103 and 108 ambulance services will be connected to the database.

Accident-prone zones on the roads will be identified and the necessary corrective measures will be taken. Also “traffic calming measure” will be taken to physically reduce the speed on vulnerable stretches near schools, hospitals, markets and other busy community locations.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said the government would soon work out the modalities for funding the initiatives.

“We are in touch with the Union government so that some of the programmes could be implemented on a cost-sharing basis,” Reddy said. 

Other ground-level measures planned include making it mandatory to conduct road safety audit for all new road construction projects and road safety review for existing roads.

According to the policy, the transport department will open automated driving training centres to issue driving licences. 

Also, automated inspection and certification centres will be opened to issue fitness certificates for vehicles. The government will also identify and nominate private institutes to conduct road safety research.