Students will stand at 19 traffic junctions and on airport premises to advise them
From Tuesday, motorists will find student volunteers standing at 19 traffic junctions carrying placards on road safety during select hours as they halt the vehicles for green signal.
They are members of Uyir Clubs, an extended arm of the people’s road safety initiative Uyir, formed at 16 colleges in the city. The volunteers will also be present on the premises of Coimbatore International Airport, the 20th place.
Trained by police, the volunteers will give gentle advices to motorists who cross the stop line, those driving without fastening the seatbelt and two-wheeler riders who do not wear helmet.
City Police Commissioner Sumit Sharan launched the Uyir Clubs by introducing the student volunteers to motorists at Anna Statue signal on Avinashi Road on Monday evening.
Message
According to S. Rajasekaran of Ganga Hospital, managing trustee of Uyir, the rationale behind starting the clubs was to approach the motorists by touching their heart, not by the law, and educate them the message ‘life is in your hands’.
“According to traffic police personnel, accident rate in the city as on date reduced by 21 % compared to that of the previous year. Apart from the works of police, we believe that initiatives of Uyir including high-end camera network to detect traffic violations at some signals played a role in achieving the declining trend. Each Uyir Club will further work towards accident-free Coimbatore through their weekly twice campaigns on roads and regular awareness activities on the campus,” he said.
Each of the 16 colleges that are part of the initiative has 150 to 200 students as members of Uyir Club.
“If 40 colleges in the city form such clubs, we will have more than 5,000 volunteers on roads for regular awareness activities. Already, awareness of road safety has increased and it is evident as majority of the two-wheeler riders wear helmet,” said Dr. Rajasekaran.
Face masks
The volunteers are given T-shirts and they will appreciate and distribute sweets to people who are wearing helmets and seat belts. Uyir will also arrange face masks for the volunteers at the earliest.
Dr. Rajasekaran added that Uyir had plans to launch ‘Kutty Cops’ wherein every school children would be encouraged to be a police at home and sensitise family members to road safety.
The 19 traffic junctions and the participating colleges of Uyir Club are Anna Statue (Bishop Appasamy College of Arts and Science), GKNM (GKNM Institute of Nursing), Lakshmi Mills (GKNM Nursing College/Hindustan Arts and Science College), Nava India (Sri Ramakrishna College of Arts and Science), Peelamedu (PSG Institute of Management), Krishnammal (PSGR Krishnammal College for Women), Saravanampatti, Saravanampatti – Kalapatti and Athipalayam signals (Kumaraguru College of Technology/SNS College of Engineering), Saibaba Kovil Signal (Ganga College of Nursing), Singanallur and Ramanathapuram (Sri Jeyandra College of Arts and Science), Athupalam, Kuniyamuthur and Sri Krishna College of Arts and Science junctions (Sri Krishna CAS), Sundarapuram (Ratinam College of Arts and Science), Thudiyallur (Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College), Othakkalmandapam (DJ Academy for Managerial Excellence), SITRA and airport premises (NGP Institute of Technology).
Date: October 01, 2019
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