The state government will handhold students’ bodies to set up road safety clubs in colleges to increase awareness about rash driving among the youth.
Figures from the state’s integrated road accident database (IRAD) suggest that motorbikes were involved in the maximum number of accidents, fatal as well as non-fatal. And two-wheeler-riders were often found to be of young and impressionable age, police said.
The IRAD collects information about all recorded accidents in the state
with details of the time, place, nature and cause, before uploading it on the database.
“The database became functional in March with officials collecting all information about accidents, the reason behind them, the number of fatalities, post-mortem reports and other details,” said a senior official of the transport department.
“After analysing the data of five months till July, it emerged that young two-wheeler-riders were involved in over 50 per cent of the road accidents. The state government wants to reach out to this group of two-wheeler-riders, the majority of whom have been found to be young students,” the official said.
Some colleges in the city have been identified and transport department officials will visit their campuses and talk to the authorities about the formalities of setting up road safety clubs.
The clubs will be on the lines of other clubs that college students set up and actively participate in. Senior officials of the transport department will take the lead in setting up road safety clubs and get students and teachers to discuss issues of road safety.
“College students driving two-wheelers will be
members of such clubs and senior officials will meet to discuss the challenges involved in driving two-wheelers at a high speed and
on wet roads with heavy traffic,” a transport official said.
“We will begin with four or five colleges before adding more institutions to the list,” the official said.
Senior police officers at Lalbazar said two-wheelers accounted for most of the accidents on the streets of Calcutta. In May, nearly
58 per cent of all accidents in the city involved two-wheelers, according to the
records.
“While the compliance on wearing helmets has
gone up, the tendency to drive rashly, sometimes without strapping the
helmet, is still quite prevalent,” said a senior police officer.
“Records show speeding two-wheelers have either skidded off the carriageway or have
lost balance while trying to negotiate with bigger vehicles at night,” the officer said.
Members of the road safety clubs in colleges will meet once a month to discuss issues of road safety. Senior motor vehicle inspectors will attend these meetings and try to address the concerns of young bikers on different aspects of road safety.