The 29th road safety week kicked off in Dehradun on Monday with the State DGP A K Raturi flagging off a motor bike rally involving City Patrol Unit and traffic police at police lines in the city. Police said that during the traffic safety week which would conclude on April 29, the people would be made aware of the road safety norms and the traffic rules. Several programmes have been lined up for the week and the students would be given training on how to man traffic at the important crossings.
DGP Raturi said that the number of road accidents is more than the number of criminal activities happening in the State. “Things are really alarming,” he said.
Several youngsters were instructed to abide by the traffic rules like wearing helmets while riding two-wheelers.
DGP said that the trend of the riders and pillion riders riding sans helmets has come down drastically after CPU has enforced the traffic rules strictly on the roads through slapping penalties for flouting the rules. “We are happy that the road accident involving the two -wheelers has come down by 25 % following the strict enforcement of the rules,” he said.
He appealed to the students, the youths and also the senior citizens to play their role in awakening the people about the imperative of observing the road safety and traffic rules.
DGP administered oath to some students on the eve about observing the traffic rules while they are on the roads. The CPU personnel demonstrated the consequences of violation of traffic rules like over- speeding, drunk driving, red light jumping and using mobile phone while driving / riding among others as well as the action the police take after road mishaps occur.