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Premier Institutes to be identified Premier institutes in the country would be identified and promoted for the purpose of conducting road safety audit of National Highways and other roads in the country. The decision was taken at the first meeting of the Committee on Road Safety & Traffic Management held on Thursday. It was also decided to work out the financial implications of this exercise. The decision was taken keeping in view the lack of expertise available for road safety audit in the country. The Committee also took the decision that efforts would be made to introduce subjects on road safety in the school curriculum involving Ministry of Human Resource Development. The Committee met under the Chairmanship of Secretary (RT&H) and deliberated on wide-ranging issues so as to prioritize certain specific areas to improve road safety scenario in the country and to look into road safety issues in an integrated manner. The Committee members were of the view that the first one hour of the road accident is considered to be the ‘golden hour’ in the context of medical emergency and it is vital to provide emergency medical care facilities to the victims within this hour itself to reduce fatalities. The road accident victims are to undergo various legal hassles to get compensation from the insurance companies. In cases where the road accident victim is poor, it is very difficult on his part to get proper / due medical care instantly. Keeping this in view, it was felt to evolve a cashless system for providing immediate medical care to the road accident victims. In another decision, the Committee decided to review the driving license system envisaged in the Central Motor Vehicle Rules so as to ensure that the driving licenses are granted only to the genuine and credible applicants. Since, driver’s fault has been identified as the single largest cause of road accidents, the committee members felt that a stringent procedure for grant of driving licenses involving negligible human interference would certainly help in lowering the rate of road accidents. It was also decided that the Transport Research Wing of this Ministry together with National Crime Records Bureau and IIT, Delhi would evolve a mechanism for collection of reliable / accurate data relating to road accidents indicating all sensitive parameters. Pending creation of the National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board, this committee has been constituted on October 7,2009 by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways .It comprises experts in the field of road safety, namely, Prof. Dinesh Mohan, IIT, Delhi, Shri D.P. Gupta, former DG (Roads) and Additional Secretary, Joint Commissioner (Traffic), Delhi Police, Chairman, National Highway Authority of India etc. |
