The Tamil Nadu Special Task Force for road safety and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras will collaborate to create safe roads.
The institute’s Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS), RBG Labs, will use data from the State’s police department to come up with recommendations for accident prevention at hotspots. The Centre will rely on the extensive data that the State’s police has on road accidents. The centre will use the data to develop forensic accident audits comprehensive and scientific crash investigation at identified crash spots and make recommendations for accident prevention at hotspots, a release from IIT-M said.
The Centre will design framework to conduct empirical ground studies, identify gaps in data collection and provide a structured methodology for data collection and analysis. It would perform scientific evaluation of the impact of interventions implemented and create a comprehensive standard operating procedure for effective traffic enforcement. The aim is to provide a “design thinking” approach that the road safety authorities would implement.
Vinit Wankhede, additional DGP and chairperson of the STF on road safety (STF-RS), said the limited police personnel limited the number of cases that the police could book at any given time. The institute’s research would enable district collectors identify short-term and long-term solutions and other road-owning agencies and help establish Tamil Nadu Road Safety Authority.
Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Head of CoERS and professor in RBG Labs, Department of Engineering Design in the institute, said: “A detailed and scientific crash investigation with a comprehensive evaluation would provide insights post-crash for stakeholders [road safety enforcement authority] to plan and implement interventions.” The Centre, along with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) would implement the learnings from the State across the country, he said.
