Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on Tuesday directed the District Collectors, SPs and RTOs to strengthen the enforcement activities at district level in all State and National Highways to ensure road safety. They were advised to take up 100 per cent surprise checks and massive enforcement activities each month in a coordinated manner.
Padhi also asked to work out road safety action plans at the district level and communicate it to the Transport Commissioner within 10 days.
Further, the Chief Secretary directed the Collectors to popularise the policy of the Government for recognising the services rendered by the Good Samaritans who help the accident victims by taking them to hospital. Collectors were advised to publicize and popularize the policy on a campaign mode.
Analysis of road accident data showed that major accidents took place on NHs and SHs. Two wheelers and light vehicles were more prone to accidents. Mostly the young drivers in the age group of 21 to 43 years caused accidents. The common causes of accidents found from the analysis were drunk and reckless driving, over speeding, over loading and use of mobile phones by the drivers while driving etc.
Padhi also directed the Collectors and concerned departments to do the road safety audit regularly and identify the black spots taking into consideration various vulnerable factors. The State PWD and the National High Way Authority of India (NHAI) were asked to take up road maintenance activities regularly and implement the interim measures in all 240 identified black spots within three months. The Police and Transport Commissioner were advised to upload the driving and traffic offence data of the drivers in their Dls through online software called Sarathi.