Safety awareness ‘weak’

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Chennai: Yet another road safety week has come. And it will be gone in a few days. Road-users and mo­st of the 1.68 crore vehicle-owners will continue to flout rules to whatever possible ext­ent they are capable of — from speaking over mo­b­ile phones while driving to jumping traffic signals and overspeeding, among other violations. Despite stern acti­on and widespr­ead aw­a­­reness program­mes, accident-related fata­l­ities have been increasing in the state for over a decade and TN stands second among accident-prone sta­t­es in India.
According to state tra­n­sport department statistics, the number of accidental deaths has gone up by over 45 per cent in the past decade.
Road accidents shot up by 6.9 per cent and 8.3 per cent from 2009. Aut­hor­ities say that accide­nts involving sta­te-run buses have come do­wn. “Due to various me­asures, fatalities inv­o­l­v­ing STC buses have co­me down to 1,237 in 2011-12 from 1,599 in 2007-08. Besides, drunken driving has also come down owing to stringent measures,” said transp­ort minister Senthil Bal­aji. The state is taking various measures, in­c­luding improving the dr­i­ving skills of licence app­licants by improving the facilities in RTOs which would yield better results in the long run, he pointed out.
Civic activists attrib­ute lack of awareness and the lackadaisical attitude of motorists bes­ides poor ro­ad engineering by the aut­h­orities. “Roads are not de­s­igned scientifically to accomm­odate pede­stria­ns. Hel­m­et-less driving, dr­u­nk­en driving do­esn’t se­em to have redu­ced tho­u­gh the authoriti­es claim ste­rn action has been tak­en against such offenders,” laments Sen­t­hil Ku­m­ar, a member of NGO Fifth Pillar.
Mot­orists observe traffic rul­es only at the time of ob­taining driving lice­nc­es at RTOs. With issu­a­nce of licence bec­oming a mere formality, accidents have become a routine affair, he adds.