Chhattisgarh has a total of 29 ‘black spots’ on national highways which had been highly prone to road fatalities.
The number of black spots at which long term measures are already taken or are being taken in the proposed projects currently total 15 in the State, the Central Government has informed.
The status of black spots were identified based on 2011, 2012 and 2013 fatalities on National Highways.
As many as 3,330 persons died in Chhattisgarh in road accidents during 2014-15, officials stated.
The total number of road accidents on national highways in the entire country during the calendar year 2014 is 1,37,903 which accounted for a share of 28.2% in total road accidents.
It may be recalled that purchase of a helmet is now also mandatory to get a new rwo wheeler registered with the Regional Transport Office (RTO) in Chhattisgarh.
Without the purchase receipt of helmet, registration of vehicle would not be done by the RTO, officials informed .
Helmet purchase has been mandatory by the Office of Regional Transport Officer (RTO) in view of rider safety.
The two-wheeler dealers will now have to forward the purchase receipt of helmet along with other required documents for vehicle registration. In case the helmet receipt has not been attached with the document, then registration of vehicle would not be performed and the concerned dealer will have to face action, officials stated.
On January 5 this year, a meeting in this regard was held at the Office of RTO wherein representatives of various two wheeler dealers took part. They were asked to ensure following of helmet rule so that the registration book/smart card could be easily made available to the customers.
The RTO advised dealers to display the Government approved registration tax and choice registration number rates on a notice board so that customer may not have to face any kind of confusion or difficulty.
The Raipur City Traffic Police has launched a campaign last month to generate awareness on wearing of helmet by two wheeler riders. Notably on October 31 last year, the State Transport Minister Rajesh Munat has called for making helmet mandatory for two-wheeler riders in the State.
Chairing a meeting of State Road Safety Council, the Minister also directed officials to make use of helmet mandatory by people purchasing two wheelers.
Munat also directed officials to spread awareness among the school and college goers regarding the road safety measures.
He had suggested the automobile dealers to join the awareness programmes by contributing funds from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) heads.
Munat also directed the Additional Transport Commissioner to ensure that the black films are not put on the glasses of four wheelers. He had ordered officials to take action against the shopkeepers putting black films on glasses of four wheelers. The Minister also directed officials to check overloading of passengers in public transport and rash driving.
Officials were told to encourage all Divisional Headquarters for setting up Driving schools. The meeting also included discussions on ensuring proper visibility of traffic signals and removal of advertisement hoardings from spots interrupting the visibility of these signals.
Notably, on September 22 this year, Chief Minister Raman Singh had also called upon the youth to follow traffic rules for their own safety and that of others. He had urged the riders of two-wheelers to wear helmets.
Notably, an emergency Ambulance Service ‘108 Sanjeevani Express’ operational in Chhattisgarh has attended over 10 lakh people in emergency across the State between 2011 and 2015 including a large number of road mishap victims.
Similarly, Sanjeevani Express successfully provided medical assistance to over 2.49 lakh patients in the state between January 1 and December 31, 2015.
“As many as 1013570 patients were attended by Sanjeevani Express during the last five years while the service has provided medical assistance to around 249242 patients in 2015,” Public Relations Officer of 108 service in Chhattisgarh Shibu Kumar.
Of the 249242 patients were attended across the State and a large count of emergencies were attended in Naxal-infested districts, including 15123 patients in Rajnandgaon, Kanker (11660), Dantewada (5624), Narayanpur (2125) and Sukma (2625), informed Kumar.
With 240 ambulances, road accidents, emergencies including animal bite, assault, cardio vascular, diabetes, disaster due to natural elements, epilepsy, fire, hazardous material, industrial, intentional self-harm, neonatal, poisoning, pregnancy related, respiratory and others were attended promptly.