Wearing seat belts will be made mandatory for drivers and front-seat passengers in heavy vehicles, including KSRTC buses, from September 1. Transport Minister Antony Raju, who chaired a review meeting of the AI camera system in the State, said front-seat passengers in the same row as the driver in heavy vehicles would also have to wear seat belts.
The Minister said the deaths in road accidents had come down since the AI camera network became functional. From an average of 12 deaths per day, it has now come down to five to eight. As many as 3,52,730 traffic violations were detected by the cameras during the period from 8 a.m. on June 5 to midnight of June 8. Of these, 80,743 violations were verified by Keltron and 10,457 offenders were issued challans by the Motor Vehicles department for payment of fine.
Mr. Raju explained that the number of verified violations was less because the Motor Vehicles department had not yet made wearing of seat belt mandatory for heavy vehicles. The highest number of violations (7,896) recorded by the cameras so far was that of front seat passengers in cars not wearing seat belts, followed by drivers not wearing seat belt (4,993). As many as 6,153 two-wheeler riders and 715 pillion riders were caught without helmets. The cameras also recorded 25 cases of using mobile phones while driving and two cases of overspeeding while 56 government vehicles and VIP vehicles were found to have violated traffic rules and 10 were issued challan.
The Minister said efforts were on to streamline the functioning of the surveillance camera network. “Keltron has been directed to speed up the verification of traffic violations recorded by the cameras. The National Informatics centre (NIC) has also been urged to provide a multiple login facility on the Integrated Transport Monitoring System,” he added.
Additional Transport Commissioner Pramoj Sankar, Keltron Chairman and Managing Director Narayana moorthy and Deputy Director General, NIC Abeer Edwin were present at the meeting.
