IIT-M joins hands with Tamil Nadu govt for scientific approach to road safety

The agreement is likely to result in a design framework for conducting empirical ground studies, identification of gaps in data collection and more on road safety

The prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) has entered into agreement with the Tamil Nadu government to implement a scientific enforcement approach to road safety.

Conducting forensic accident audits at identified crash spots and developing a comprehensive and scientific crash investigation taking into factor the human, vehicle and road environment, and submitting a detailed crash investigation report and recommendations for the hotspots for prevention of accidents along with photographs are some of the targeted outcomes of the collaboration.

The agreement is also likely to result in a design framework for conducting empirical ground studies, identification of gaps in data collection and provide a structured methodology for data collection and analysis, and recommendations on data-driven process improvements in enforcement strategies.

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An MoU for this collaboration was signed recently between the Special Task Force, Road Safety, Government of Tamil Nadu and the Centre of Excellence for Road Safety CoERS, IIT-M.

“It is important to understand the socio-economic burden of road accidents on society and family due to young students and breadwinners losing their lives. The adoption of a scientific approach to road safety is a must,” C Sylendra Babu, Director-General of Police, said.

Prof V Kamakoti, Director, IIT-M said the institute was happy to collaborate with Tamil Nadu Police on the most important topic of road safety.

“Leveraging the technical and robust field level experience of Tamil Nadu Police along with a large amount of data available with them we have no doubt that a very robust and comprehensive road safety framework will be developed through this interaction at the shortest possible time,” Prof Kamakoti said.

Vinit Wankhede, Additional Director General of Police and Chairperson, Special Task Force on Road Safety (STF–RS), Tamil Nadu, said road safety is always effective only if safe roads and safe users complement each other (Road Safety = Safe Roads + Safe Users). “Scientific Enforcement along with Road User Education contribute towards safe users. We want to maximise the impact of cases we book by scientifically identifying strategies which work and which don't and also deploying the right technology in the right manner,” he said.