Accident rate: With a slew of steps, TN revises target to 40 per cent

The State witnessed highest number of road accidents in 2016, that is 71,431 and registered an increase of 37 per cent since 2001 when it stood at 51,978.

As a silver lining, a reversal of trend was marked in 2017 when the increase in the total number of accidents declined by 11 per cent from 2016.

In 2017, the Ministry of Transport and Highways adopted the UN Decade of Action, an international framework targeting to curtail the accident rate by 50 percent before 2020.

The Joint Transport Commissioner Chennai South Zone, Manakumar, said, “Authorities are mulling over the idea to shift the target from 50 per cent to 40 per cent, which is aligned to the main target of bringing down the figure to single digit”.

Elaborating on the mission, he said, “For an instance, if the State has registered only 1000 cases in a year. Then, authorities must initiate steps to bring it down to 500 in the subsequent year. But, now we are planning to bring it down to 400 cases.”

“We have taken a slew of steps as part of the awareness programme. In the last one year, the department has been conducting road safety classes for those availing driving licence.

We broadcast an audio visual, including live accident reports for the public in all the RTOs across the State”, he added. Besides, the department has also been organising various awareness programmes in educational institutions aimed at sensitising children and youth to road rules in an effort to bring down the accident rate.