Dr Kiran Bedi former Lt Governor of Puducherry an an eminent road safety expert stressed on the need of focusing on 4E’s of road safety namely Education, Enforcement , Engineering and Environment to curb growing road accidents in the country.
“The main thrust of accident prevention and control across the world has been on 4 E’s vis Education, Enforcement, Engineering , Environment plus Emergency care of road accident victims. The Government of India has been focusing on all these four approaches in its policies and programme. Road safety is a multidisciplinary profession, where public-private partnerships bring best results. These include professionals with engineering, public health, public safety, education among the many other disciplines that could be involved. Here’s how the 4 E’s work in road safety” said Dr Kiran Bedi, former LG of Puducherry while speaking at at the Three day “Global Road Safety Initiative ‘ being organised by organized by the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) in partnership with the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India, and in association with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
“Road Engineering measures are considered essential for adoption to improve road safety – geometry of the road, separation of local traffic, pedestrian facility, etc which are identified through regular Road Safety audits. Research becomes impertinent to outline the characteristics of roads based on traffic volumes and densities that contribute to road deaths. It is essential to identify hazardous locations, high-risk areas and crash locations to design safer roads.” Dr Bedi said.
“As far as Enforcement of Laws and Legislations the main behaviours most likely to result in road traffic injuries are rash driving, not using a helmet, a seat-belt or child restraint, and over-speeding. Although many countries have laws that address these risky behaviors, they may not be fully enforced.” Dr Bedi said “Education—has been proven to reduce road traffic injuries and fatalities. Similarly vehicular engineering also had a major role to play and as far as Emergency care is involved the first 24 hours are imported for the accident victim. But the biggest concern is that of collective responsibility and accident data collection. As responsibility should be put on concerned agencies including PWD, NHAI, Municipal, contractors, Police and other civic bodies” she added.
“Shaming and naming of traffic violators by videography, use of social media can be a big deterrent for regular violators. Each accident should be investigated, audited and video graphed and shared among concerned various agencies and preventive measures taken to avoid accidents at same place” Dr Bedi said.
“Road safety, however, does not always suffer due to untrained drivers but often because of poorly defined lanes and inappropriate road signage that confuse pedestrians, cyclists and motorists alike. There is a need for improving road engineering standards, regular road repairs and scientific traffic management that will serve the purpose only when traffic constables implementing the law are also well trained.” Said Dr Rohit Baluja , President IRTE speaking on the occasion.
“There is no training of traffic police here. While issuing challans (tickets), they may not even have full knowledge of traffic rules and violations. They need to be trained to understand what can be categorized as violation,” Baluja explained, based on his experience as a trainer for Indian Police Service officers as well as traffic.
