At over 4,000 deaths a year, the number of people dying due to road accidents in Kerala is over ten times the number of murders (about 400) in the State. This situation calls for an urgent need to focus on accident-prevention measures in all districts, Transport Commissioner S. Sreejith, holding charge as Road Safety Commissioner, said here on Tuesday.
This is apart from the around 20,000 people who suffer permanent disability. Rule enforcement can avert accidents by 20% while the rest 80% can be preventable through proper road engineering and education (which go on to make the three E’s). There are internationally accepted norms and the Kerala Road Safety Authority (KRSA) can do much to bring about convergence of accident-prevention measures, he says.
Mr. Sreejith was delivering the keynote address at a day-long conference on ‘Accident prevention and post-crash management in Kerala’ organised by the authority, which was attended by enforcement personnel, volunteers, and NGOs.
