Chennai: In a bid to bring down the road accidents as the lockdown will be lifted in phases, Chennai-based NGO Citizen consumer and civic Action Group (CAG), shared recommendations with Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami to ensure safe transit during and after the national lockdown.
It may be noted that road crashes kill around 1,50,000 people every year and have continued to wreak havoc even during the national lockdown.
“Since 24 March till date, 1,176 road crashes with 321 fatalities have been documented in the country,” said a press release.
“As the lockdown is lifted in phases, there will be a surge in vehicular traffic and there are concerns that there will be a sharp spike in road crashes fatalities. It would be very unfortunate that after taking so many measures to limit deaths due to Covid-19, if we see people dying due to road crashes which are absolutely avoidable. Even during the lockdown there have been some crashes due to speeding and driver fatigue. Now, at the end of the lockdown and as it is lifted, people are looking to travel back to their homes or on their daily commute and their safety must be a priority,” said, CAG director S Saroja.
“While we welcome the decision to run special trains and buses for ferrying migrants, students and stranded tourists to their hometowns, we remain concerned about the safety of drivers and passengers on journeys by road,” said the letter addressed to the Chief Minister.
CAG has requested the State government to keep in mind road safety issues while drawing up transport-related plans for the post-lockdown period such as to put in place standard operating protocols for government bus drivers, enforcing the road rules on speeding, drunk driving, wearing of helmets/seatbelts, improving infrastructure on all roads for pedestrians
and cyclists.