Madurai: Road deaths have come down close to 39% in three years in Tamil Nadu, said transport commissioner T S Jawahar at a road safetymeeting in Madurai district collectorate for Madurai and Virudhunagar districts on Tuesday. The number of deaths due to road accidents has reduced from 17, 200 in 2016 to 10,500 in 2019. The year 2018 witnessed 12, 200 road deaths, said the transport commissioner cum principal secretary.
Talking to the newsmen, Jawahar said that they have set an ambitious target of zero road deaths by the year 2030 and have started working towards it involving various departments. Tamil Nadu has road infrastructure measuring a length of 2 lakh km with 2.90 crore vehicles, including 2.45 crore two-wheelers. In Madurai and Virudhunagar alone the road length is around 7,000 km with 18.38 lakh vehicles including 16 lakh two-wheelers. The two districts, which witnessed 1,102 road deaths in 2018, came down to 661 in 2019. He said that the number of road fatalities has come down in Madurai and Virudhunagar considerably. Identification of around 40 black spots in Madurai and 24 in Virudhunagar district and increase in road safety helped them bring down the number of road deaths.“Two-wheelers account for most of the road deaths in the state and deaths occur mainly because of not wearing helmet,” he said.
“Human error is behind most of the accidents than any other reason. Drunk and driving and mobile phone usage while driving are the major reasons. There is a provision in motor vehicle act to arrest those driving under the influence of alcohol and police will soon implement it. More than 3 lakh licenses have been cancelled between 2016 and 2019 for series of violations,” he said. Road engineering has been improved to make the roads safer. Already orders have been issued to include road safety features while laying new roads. When asked whether the shortage of staff in transport department is crippling essential services, he denied it. Around 50,000 learning licenses, 32,000 new license, 24,000 license renewals and 5,107 endorsements have been done in 2019. The recent recruitment of motor vehicle inspectors is under court inquiry. New recruits will join once clearance comes out, he said.
IG traffic and road safety Promodh Kumar, Madurai and Virudhunagar district collectors T G Vinay and R Kannan, Madurai city police commissioner, S Davidson Devasirvatham, Madurai range DIG Annie Vijaya, Madurai district superintendent of police N Manivannan and Madurai city traffic deputy commissioner K Sugumaran took part in the meeting.
Source: TOI
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