TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Goa government on Thursday notified the State Road Safety Policy and Action Plan to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent by the year 2020. The road safety policy aims to reduce the chance of road accidents and provide effective medical emergency assistance to accident victims with implementation strategies.
The policy gives priority to human life and health over mobility, a transportation system capable of reducing human errors and public concern through engineers, enforcement agencies and guaranteed health safety standard.
The vehicle population of Goa has reached 10 lakh, of which approximately 7 lakh are two wheelers, the average annual growth being around 12 per cent. Last year 290 people lost their lives in road accidents and the accident toll went up to 4229. The department has identified 11 key action areas of road safety to achieve the desired target.
Goa State Road Safety Council will coordinate with a number of agencies linked to road safety including PWD, Transport, Police, Health and Development authorities to enhance and have effective inter departmental coordination. The council will function as a nodal agency which will ensure that District Road Safety Councils, North and South, shall actively perform their duties.
The extremely important area is health and providing medical aid to the victim during accident, the policy has ensured that the road accident victim shall benefit from speedy and effective trauma care and management. The 108 emergency ambulance services will be reviewed and involvement of private practitioners and hospitals in EMR and trauma care.
A manual for the State on ‘Safety-conscious Highway Design Standards’ would be adopted and specific sections on ‘Safety at road Works’ would be incorporated according to the policy. Road Safety Auditing of existing roads and new roads would be carried out in a phased manner. Accident prone locations would be identified and improved in phased manner for all important roads in the State.
Along with these major highlights the policy has also incorporated data collection and management systems through software, road safety publicity campaign and awareness, road safety education in schools through curriculum activities, enforcement of traffic rules by strengthening traffic police and enforcement wing of transport.
There will be a driver’s training and testing track at Ponda which will test drivers without any human element by using electronic sensors on the testing track.
Fifty per cent of the amount collected from fines and penalties will be made available for road safety.
