Nagpur: Mishaps on roads continue to be the single largest cause of fatality in the country. In fact, fatalities in road accidents are much more than people who succumbed to COVID-19 virus, said Justice (Retd.) Abhay Sapre while calling upon citizens to strictly obey the road rules while driving their vehicles. He is one of the Members of the Supreme Court appointed Safety Committee.
“There is a need to curb fatalities on the road due to rash driving at all cost as it is a colossal waste of the nation’s sources,” stressed Justice (Retd.) Sapre while chairing a meeting of the Road Safety Committee at Hotel Radisson Blu on Monday.
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Vivek Bhimanwar, Transport Commissioner; District Collector Dr Vipin Itankar; Joint Commissioner of Police Aswati Dorje; District Superintendent of Police (DSP) Vishal Anand; Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Ravindra Bhuyar; Jt. Director, Health Services, Dr Pooja Singh; Deputy Commissioner of Police,Traffic, Chetna Tidke; and others were present at the meeting. Representatives of NGOs were also invited for the meet.
At the meeting, Justice Sapre asked the reasons for the growing mishaps and steps to reduce the same. Till October 2022, about 399 persons have lost their lives in road mishaps in Nagpur District and the rising number of casualties is a cause of concern among the planners. From the discussion some of the reasons behind casualties in mishaps were listed and they are avoiding usage of helmets, not wearing seat belts while driving, speeding.
In his address, Justice (Retd.) Sapre emphasised on giving lessons on safety while riding on roads to children in school education and asked agencies to implement the same. Also all the employees in offices should be compulsorily made to wear helmets and respective Head of Department must ensure that. Those not wearing helmets must not be allowed to attend the office. Forgetting wearing seat belts or avoiding usage of helmets while driving are bad habits and the same needs to be changed. He asked further when a person afflicted with BP or sugar misses a daily dose of medicine, so the excuse for getting safety gears while driving is a lame excuse and the early one sheds this mindset that it’s better for society at large.
“Developed countries have roads designed for maximum speed far in excess of one prescribed in our country. However, there the rate of fatalities in mishaps is far less compared to one in our country. In Japan, around 4,000 people succumbed to injuries in four lakh mishaps and the prime reason for such low fatality rates is adhering to the rules,” said Justice (Retd.) Sapre. He also pointed out that Maharashtra has the second highest rate of fatalities in the country, and asked officials to take a review of the black spots on roads and reduce fatalities in mishaps.
