The State with the highest number of deaths in road accidents in India and highest fatality rate of 75.8 per cent would now hold hands of Belgium to steer clear from accelerating mishaps and disasters on roads.
Facing somewhat similar problem owing to its interest in Formula One racing, a small European country, Belgium, has succeeded in bringing down road deaths by 36 per cent between the year 2000 and 2009, which has continued to drop each year — approximately 6.5 per cent annually since 2001. Now, Punjab may follow its footsteps, as the Belgium Government has extended its “full cooperation” to the State in reducing the number of deaths on roads.
The assurance to this effect came after the Punjab Road Safety Council’s vice chairman Dr Kamaljeet Soi, an alumnus of Belgium’s Hasselt University, met Belgium Princess Astrid and Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders at a Diplomatic Reception hosted by the Princess in New Delhi on November 24.
“During our informal meeting, I appraised her on the everyday bloody massacre on the roads of Punjab and the apathetic attitude of the Central Government in lowering the mortality on the roads of Punjab,” said Dr Soi, who was honoured with the Royal Certificate of Excellence on Road Safety. Princess Astrid assured of the fullest support and cooperation of Belgium Government in reducing road fatalities in Punjab and invited Dr Soi to Belgium to work out an action plan for future.
“An alliance with Belgium can help a long way in importing the know-how regarding road correction, and improving road safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists in a complex spatial environment like that of Punjab,” Soi told The Pioneer. He said that the Belgium Government has witnessed great improvement in controlling road accidents, though the number still is comparatively high there. “Punjab would be gained by the steps they have taken in this direction by running several campaigns focused exclusively on the youngsters, speed, seat belts, motorcyclists, among others,” he added.
Dr Soi said that it has worked on various aspects like collecting injury accident statistics “and analyzing it with regard to the victims like location, type of accident, type of vehicle involved etc to come up with better policy” to check the same. It also identified the prime “killers on the road”, and it came out to be alcohol, speed and not wearing seat belts “alike Punjab”. “The campaigns were prepared and steps were taken keeping in mind the behaviour and attitudes of car drivers in traffic like wearing seat belts, child seats, obeying speed limits, and not mixing drive with drinks etc,” he said.
The immediate steps are required to deal with the situation as in the absence of same, the journey has ended before the destination for around 50 persons in all during the past three months in the state. The recent report — Road Accidents in India — prepared by the Union Road Ministry’s transport research wing indicated that roads in Punjab are proving to be fatal for commuters, with ludhiana and Amritsar cities claiming the maximum lives in India.
According to it, the severity of accident — deaths per 100 mishaps — in the State has increased in the past four years from 65.9 per cent in 2009 to 75.8 per cent in 2012. Taken together, Punjab has lost 4,795 lives in road accidental deaths in 2012 out of 6,328 road accidents. Only recently, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal has maintained that the state is planning to have its own highway patrol police soon, besides installing automatic radars on highways to arrest speed, and capture the violators in cameras.
In addition, the government would also to put up “big” signages alongside highways, alike those in foreign countries, and ensure that no posters be pasted on the same. This is not all. The Government has also made a commitment to honour those who will help the accidents victims to take them to hospital, at district level functions during Republic Day and Independence Day functions.