In a bid to reduce the mounting road accidents and fatalities, enforcement squads of the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD), the police and the Kanivu 108 ambulance service have been asked to be in the close vicinity of the 232 high-risk accident black spots identified on the National Highway, State Highway and other road (OH) corridors.
The aim is to keep an eye on erring motorists, ensure road discipline and swiftly intervene in case of an accident. The newly launched Kanivu 108 ambulances of the Health Department’s comprehensive trauma care and management system will be able to shift the injured swiftly from the accident site to appropriate trauma management centres within the ‘golden hour.’
The MVD has 85 enforcement squads under the Safe Kerala project in addition to the squads in its 80 offices across the State. A network of 315 Kanivu 108 ambulances and trained emergency care personnel in the 14 districts will come in handy for the initiative of the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA).
Necessary directives to this effect have been given to the MVD, the police and the Health Department by the KRSA, which had prioritised the black spots of 2019 based on the road accident data of 2016, 2017 and 2018, Road Safety Commissioner N. Shanker Reddy told The Hindu.
The prioritised list worked out by the KRSA from 340 black spots has been given to the MVD and the police to alert field-level officers and to keep a watch on the vulnerable spots.
Pappanamcode Junction along NH 66 in the capital is the ‘most critical black spot’ in Kerala’s road network with the highest district-wise Accident Severity Index (ASI) value of 366.
The National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (Natpac) had been asked to come up with long-term and short-term mitigation measures for these spots after field visit and identify the reasons for the accidents, he added.
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