Road safety van to be seen on Vizag streets

With the increasing traffic and road accidents, the awareness created by the Road Safety Week is essential. As a part of the 28th road safety week celebration, a publicity van on road safety was given the green signal, by the Transport Commissioner N. Balasubrahmanyam, at the Regional Transport Authority (RTA) Office, on Friday to create awareness in the citizens of Vizag.

The Road Safety Week observance was initiated by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways.  With a view to supplement the efforts of the Ministry, the Council from the year 2011 has started producing promotional materials like cloth banners, safety posters, pocket guides, safety films, etc to observe Road Safety Week effectively.

Transport Commissioner N. Balasubrahmanyam asked the officials to instigate the publicity vans not only in urban areas but also in rural areas. He also advised the supervisors to prepare banners giving statistics of road accidents and the fatalities on the roads to sensitise the public on the issue

“Apart from awareness, enforcement of traffic rules should also be intensified to minimise accidents. Top priority should be given to pedestrians on the roads but the unfortunate thing was that 10 % of people dying on roads were pedestrians,” stated the transport commissioner.

An audio cassette would be played through the publicity van at all major junctions and lanes, stating the traffic rules and regulations as well as safety norms. The Commissioner said that in order achieve a target of 30% in the reduction of accidents, the officials need to implement the helmet rule very strictly in coordination with the Police Department.