A slew of measures by the Motor Vehicle Department coupled with focus on enforcement and road safety awareness under the Safe Kerala project have helped bring down accidents, fatalities and serious injuries on roads in the State.
“As many as 1,488 lives could be saved. Road accidents could be brought down by 13,149 and injuries by 15,484 in 2020. There was an overall reduction of 32% in road accidents, 33.5% in fatalities and 33.6% in injuries in 2020 when compared to 2019. The Safe Kerala project played a big role in it,” Joint Transport Commissioner Rajeev Puthalath said.
The downward trend started in November 2019 before the pandemic outbreak.
Road accidents dropped from 41,111 in 2019 to 27,962 in 2020, fatalities from 4,440 to 2,952 and injuries sustained from 46,055 to 30,571. Safe Kerala, which has 14 Enforcement Regional Transport Officers, 99 Motor Vehicle Inspectors (MVI), and 187 assistant MVIs concentrated on enforcement and creating safety to achieve a record 35% reduction in fatalities. As many as 60 electric vehicles were made available for the Safe Kerala team. In addition to the 37 vehicles procured using Plan fund, fully equipped 17 interceptor vehicles too were utilised. Thirty-nine speed detection cameras installed on the Walayar-Vadakkanchery corridor and Kowdiar-Vellayambalam stretch in the capital helped curb speeding among motorists.
Control rooms
Installation of 14 hi-tech control rooms with 700 Artificial Intelligence and ANPR-based cameras for monitoring vehicle movement is in the final stages, Mr. Puthalath said.
The e-challan module made enforcement transparent, thereby avoiding arguments with motorists. Virtual courts have been introduced in the State for disposing challans and e-PoS machines have come in handy for field officers for spot collection of compounding fee from erring motorists.
Gadgets like lux meters (light), decibel meters (sound), breathalyser, tint meters for ensuring transparency of wind screen glasses also helped in better enforcement.
