Saw this in today's (13th Apr) TOI...
Kudos to the traffic police...
What is heartening is not just the plain numbers.... The BTP seem to know which aspects that they should address in different areas...
Praveen Sood says: “We have concentrated more on offences like signal jumping, overspeeding and drunken driving, which has resulted in few fatal accidents.’’ ... Diversion of lorries from Hosur road - NICE Road - towards Kanakapura Road, Mysore Road and Tumkur Road has helped reduction in accidents involving lorries. ... “Effective segregation of traffic through medians constructed by BBMP has also reduced head-on collisions and improved road user discipline. Strict enforcement of 80 kmph speed limit on the road to International Airport has drastically reduced accidents in that sector,’’ Sood added. ... In the coming months, special attention will be given to regulate pedestrian movement. Hosur Road beyond Madivala, Old Madras Road beyond KR Puram, Devanahalli Road beyond Hebbal and Mysore Road beyond BHEL junction will be given special attention-Srivatsava
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Thanks BTP
Heartening to see that the accident rate has come down to an annualized rate of about 700 vs 864 in 2008 and 957 in 2007. So improvement 2 years in a row. 700 is still 700 too many, but an improvement is an improvement. At this rate we might come down to 450-500 in a couple of years.
I hope the rate comes down further in the next 3 quarters. The goal has to be zero deaths and grievous injuries even if that is not ever going to be achieved.
I have seen drastic improvements on NH7 to the airport in the last few months. Even at 11:00 p.m. people wait at the lights. However I cannot say the same about early morning. Some enforcement needs to happen early morning as well as that is a peak hour for departures.
also happy that signals have come up at some previously chaotic junctions (BTS, Siddaiah Road/Double Road) and many other places. As long as there are junctions, one cannot wish away signals. Also see that JC Road is reasonably well synchronized.
Very happy to see that the pedestrian is in focus next. Hopefully Mr.Sood will deliver on this as well.
Srivathsa
Drive safe. It is not just the car maker which can recall its product.
Enforcing helmet rule - Helmet for pillion rider as well
The Helmet rule has to be strictly enforced. Even the pillion rider should be made to wear a helmet.
Not allowing more than 2 riders in a two-wheeler should be strictly implemented.
It is not unusual to see families of 4 loaded on two wheelers - endangering children.
50% of the accidents occur in Highways and a majority of them caused by Lorries and Trucks.
Usage of high beam should be minimal and only in areas where street lights are not functional.
Great, wonderful...only registered accidents?
It is said that statistics is a bundle of lies. Without being cynical, official statistics are those that have supporting documents and are registered at a place of authority.
What about unregistered accidents? What about those accidents that are settled at the kerbs with the help of the Policeman on duty- of course with...? What about the self-settled accidents between parties or with the locals gathering and passing judgements on whoever caused the accident, whether justified or not?
In effect, there are more of unreported accidents than the official statistically supported accidents. People who have a good backing of insurance, hi-level contacts make it a point to have the cake it and eat it also.
All these because streets have remained the same but vehicles have increased manifold and people are in a hurry without concern for lane discipline, decent driving, total callous attitude towards pedestrians... If only we can tend our ways of living and help the authorities maintain proper law and order, we may have a safe, secure and peaceful transport facility.
How many drivers are wearing helmets, leave alone pillion riders, how many are drinking and driving that cause grave accidents, how many of our youngsters are having drag races on city streets and also on ring roads, how many of us love to break the rules ....? Fault lies with us and not the system.
We must be the change we want to see.
numbers!!
What are the roads safety measure and how effective were they?
alcometers to prevent drunk driving and cutting the use of souped up silencers on two stroke bikes etc are not taken up it is too early to say that deployed measures have been effective
Show us the stats on the radar guns/ alcometers every week and dont wait for the winters to take up anti drunk drive campaign.
Even state highways have speedbreaks, I was on Mysore road today with numerous road humps.
and Now BBMP is taking over the BIAL area then if it come under city limits the first thing which can be done now is to deploy enough road safety and traffic safety devices to prvent any more deaths
Only if the BIAL roads deaths comes done to zero due to some speed control measure will it be possible to give credit to the BTP or BTRAC
otheriwse BTYRAC is just a series of projects to feed the lobbies of cement, steel, sand, and concrete
A Small Step...To Begin With
I think the road to BIAL is certainly safer now than before due to strict enforcement.
Total recovery takes time & the campaign must continue. Whilst we cannot be euphoric about the latest registered stats, it's still an acheivement, however small it might be & BTP needs encouragement from the public to continue these intitiatives to improve further.
Lets not be cynical..
VasanthKumar sir,
May be you were 'misguided' into making those observations by the title of the post. Yes, there are many many accidents that are not registered with the police. But this report was about fatalities in road accidents. You will agree that 'absolutely all' fatal accidents are registered with the police. If only you had read the article or the comment from s_yajaman, you may not have gone to reason the way you did.
justathought, Public Agenda,
Why do we need to be too cynical? As Naveen puts it, we need to appreciate the work done by BTP. Obviously, drastic changes are not going to happen overnight. A small kid is not ridiculed when he passes class 5 as useless, he need time to grow up to be a man. Be patient, but always check if enough progress is being made.
-Srivatsava V
-Srivatsava V
Focussing on convictions??
Even as we are seeing some steady improvements, one aspect we fare badly is in convicting the culprits. Mr. Sood, please take this as another focus area. Once we increase the conviction rates and give enough publicity about it, the complacency amongst people will sure come down and will see more discipline 'inculcated' into the people with little education and enforcement.
Ring in the fear of the law in the minds of people.
-Srivatsava V
-Srivatsava V
Great achievement, actually
15 % fewer deaths in Q1 of 2009 vs. Q1 of 2007.
The vehicle population has probably increased by about 25 % between 2007 and 2009, so this figure is actually more like 20 %. Moreover, vehicle speeds on the outskirts of the city have increased because of high speed roads. Higher speeds translates to more deaths, even if the number of accidents is the same.
Considering these, the achievement is really commendable.
situation is better now
Not long ago I could see traffic police manually managing the traffic on all important junction..atleast now they are doing what they are supposed to do..to control traffic violation and leave the traffic management to traffic lights. I am now seeing challan being issued for red light jump violation..its welcome change and hope things improves with much better pace.
If we can have "traffic tigers" to force lane discipline, traffic rule enforcement, things would improve with better pace.
Thanks
Traffic Police personnel deployed on VIP routes...
Believe me, I am a deadly optimist and an old man in a hurry. Being cynical will only spoil the moods. Sample this:
Bangalore is a 'must visit' city for V/VIPs of all hues and half an hour before that IMPORTANT person's caravan passes, all levels of traffic police officers will be manning most of the junctions sitting in their vehicles and waiting with their walkie talkies glued to their ears. The moment news is flashed from one point, they become alert, create a mess for other vehicle users, once the convoy passes, hop into their vehicles and vanish to let one or two constables handle the mess.
Am I being cynical?
If only these officers and constables are available at the grassroots level of controlling traffic properly, book errant traffic offenders, ensure lane discipline, what a change could it make? The very presence of a cop on the road reminds me of following the rules and regulations. Will that itself not be enough to reduce my throttle and avoid an accident? No doubt there is a dearth of police personnel but if, even the available personnel are idling elsewhere, then what...?
Similar is the case with regard to increase in crimes. Thousands of police personnel are being deployed to safeguard the bodies of politicians, dormant structures of public interest, etc., etc. and slitting throats of senior citizens, dacoity, day light crimes involving double and treble murders are increasing by the day. Increase in floating population of namma Bengaluru and arrival of all sorts of gangs, criminals, underworld dons, anti social elements, rowdies, murderers, dacoits etc., for making quick bucks from the noveau rich population of cosmopolitan citizens of Bengaluru are on the increase.
We need to streamline, protect and preserve the fair name of Bengaluru albeit with available law and order men and machineries. Technology helps but it is only WYSYWIG.
- Vasanthkumar Mysoremath
PS: Somebody told me that you were cursing the traffic jam recently when you were stuck up? If yes.. OK.. if not, ignore this comment. Pun intended.
cynical... rather critical
The idea is not to allow the system to be lax. Being a tax paying citizen, it is my right to demand the implication of law and to make sure my money is used correctly and efficiently rather than providing years and years of time and money for these ppl to eat up. There is serious need of agressive revamp of the system. If you do not inculcate good qualities in a child in grade 5 , sow the seeds for him/her to realise how his tax money would be used 20 yrs hence, he/she would probably be still blogging like us on this topic. The govt and the system is not here to learn on our time, they are only a medium to implement the law. If it is ineffective law, they should have sincere ideas to make new ones or change the old ones. It has to be an extremely dynamic process. As long as we(I say we and not you) have this attitude that a 5th grade child is only on a learning curve, things will remain just as they are. Remember 5th graders are not the ones running the system, and the system is not something that was started in the recent years.