Nearly two lakh people die in road accidents every year in India and nearly `7 lakh crore is spent on treating people injured in accidents, which amounts to three percent of the GDP, according to Dr S Rajasekaran of the Ganga Hospital here.
The Ganga Hospital, jointly with the City police, and two social organisations, Round Table India and Ladies Circle, have planned a major road safety drive in which school students play a key role.
The drive was launched in the Kikani High School in the City on Wednesday on an experimental basis. It will be extended to 100 schools in Coimbatore in the first phase and then to all the schools in Tamil Nadu and the country in phases.
“One person dies every five minutes in road accidents, 80 percent of which result from not following road safety rules. This is why we decided to conduct the programme on road safety rules and their significance,” said Christopher Arvinth, National Secretary of Round Table India. “After framing a master plan, we we came to the conclusion that students could become effective agents of change in every family. We decided to strongly motivate students to follow safety norms and train them to teach their parents and friends on the significance of following the rules,” he added.
City Police Commissioner A K Viswanathan, who appreciated the drive, urged students to be the ambassadors of road safety. He stressed the need for people to follow traffic rules on their own, without compulsion from the police and fear of punishment.
In an act of self-criticism, he admitted that the police had failed to educate people on the issue and mainly resorted to penalties to enforce traffic rules.
“Wearing helmet was made mandatory from July 1. Since then we have registered 23,000 cases against violators of the rule. Every year, about 15,000 cases are registered for drunken driving and thousands of cases for other violations. Despite this, the situation is worsening. People do not follow road safety rules on their own,” he added.
“Now we have come to you students. Each and every student should be a policeman in a family and you will be able to do what the police have failed to do. Students must strictly tell their parents to follow the rules – if their father or mother fails to the helmet or seat belt or jumps a red signal – for their own safety and that of others,” the Commissioner said.
It has been decided that each school will spend 10 minutes per week to teach students the rules and train them to teach others.
“Through active campaigns against tobacco products, we succeeded to a great extent in reducing its use among youngsters. In the same way, we hope to make this drive a success. We also hope there will be a day when all people follow road safety rules and no one dies in road accidents,” said Christopher Arvinth.
Date: July 23, 2015