70% accidents due to irresponsible driving: survey

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2008-01-02
PANAJI- As the population of the state is increasing so is the number of vehicles. And this is leading to the traffic congestion on the roads besides fatal accidents sometimes resulting in instant deaths.
The known reasons for road accidents are many, however, study says main reasons for most road accidents are human errors either due to lack of awareness or irresponsible riding on the roads.
To avoid intentional or unintentional errors on the roads, educating the riders and drivers with proper rules and regulations has become the need of the hour.
This is where the Traffic Education Cell of the Traffic Control Department comes into picture.
A survey of the road accidents by traffic control department depicts the harsh reality of 70 per cent of the accidents resulting due to irresponsible driving and 30 per cent due to other reasons such as bad roads, vehicles and other environmental factors.
The number of accidents on Goan roads till October 2008 has reached the count of 3428, correspondingly the figure was 3294 in 2007.
The breakup of the total accidents figure shows that maximum killed in road accidents are two wheeler riders.
In the month of October, 15 riders have been killed in accidents and 101 persons have been killed till date this year.
Mr Bashir Shaik, who is one of the staff of Highway Patrol in Traffic Education Cell while explaining the attitude of today’s youth said, “I stopped and asked a youngster the reason for not wearing a helmet to which he replied, ‘I have applied styling gel to my hair and I don’t want to spoil my hair style.’”
“It was astonishing to hear this answer from that youngster which left me speechless” added Mr Bashir.
While explaining on the measures that are being employed by the traffic department to curb accidents, Ms Maria R E d Souza, the police inspector for Traffic Education Cell informed that the department has a highway patrol which educates the violators by going around the state.
She further added we are placing utmost emphasis on counseling youth as they learn fast and is also helping a lot to reduce fatal accidents.
“We visit schools colleges from remote places of Goa every alternate days and educate the students on signs, basic traffic rules and laws and also confront them to the reality of how many lose their lives in accidents in Goa”, said Ms Maria.
The cell has created a comprehensive slide show of Do’s and Don’ts of traffic to educate the schools they visit.
“Our efforts for creating awareness have not gone in vain, the example of which can be seen on Goan roads wherein people have responsibly begun to wear helmets and seatbelts that has reduced deaths on roads to a great extent” Ms Maria maintained.
Mr Bashir also recommends that before issuing a license to youngsters they have to be taken to the casualty ward of the hospital only to make them understand the seriousness of responsibility of riding and driving.
However, only Panaji has a traffic education cell and there is no such provision in other parts of Goa.
When asked to the police inspector, Ms Maria, it was known that police officials from other state police stations provide workshops on traffic education to schools and colleges on demand and not on regular basis which is very much required.
According to the Traffic Education Cell there is a major accident on Goan roads every two hours and accidents claim one life every 26 hours.