Transport Dept to promote road-safety culture
Shimla: Tricky hill terrain, rough and badly maintained roads of the state of Himachal are prone to accidents. Every year thousands of precious lives are lost due to the accidents in the state.
As per Transport Department of the State about 95 percent road accidents are caused due to human errors. Out of these 62.86 percent accidents are caused by over speeding.
Transport Minister Bikram Singh, in a meeting of the State Transport Development and Road Safety Council here today, stated that the accidents can be reduced by making people aware of road safety.
The Minister said that that the department carried out a comprehensive road-safety awareness campaign in the state and districts, which has resulted in decrease of 7.62 percent road accidents, 5.13 percent in death rate and 11.65 percent decrease in injury.
In a meeting it’s decided to start a road safety campaign in the state and department aiming to make it a mass campaign to establish road safety culture.
The Transport Minister said that the Transport and Police Departments will jointly make efforts to make Himachal Pradesh a safe state by making people aware of wrong habits like over speeding, drinking and driving, overloading and over taking.
The Transport Minister directed the officials to fix the black spots on the roads to reduce road accidents. He said that in case time bound completion of work is not ensured the concerned official would be held accountable.
He directed the Public Works, Health and Transport Department to work in coordination to reduce road accidents in the state.
The Transport Minister said that most people in the age group of 20 to 30 are victims of road accident. Therefore, it is very important to make students aware of road safety at school level. He said that in this regard, road-safety lessons would soon be taught in schools. Seminars and awareness camps would be also organized across the state to spread awareness amongst the drivers of the government and private sector.
