SPREADING THE LIGHT OF ROAD SAFETY AWARENESS
World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims observed across Uttar Pradesh
LUCKNOW: The transport directorate on Sunday organised a marathon to spread awareness about road safety measures as part of ‘World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims’. The marathon was organised in several parts of the state, which has witnessed about 16000 accident related deaths in last one year.
LUCKNOW: The thrill for speed and violation of road safety norms are leading to increasing number of accidents across the country. Around 1.38 lakh people lost their lives in five lakh mishaps reported across the country in 2013. In Uttar Pradesh alone, around 16,000 people died in road accidents last year.
The alarming figures have forced the state government to think and spread awareness over the issue. For the first time, the ‘World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims’ was observed across UP on Sunday. In Lucknow, the transport directorate organised a marathon for road safety awareness in the morning while candles were lit in the evening in remembrance of at least 516 people killed on city roads last year.
The lighting of candles was done under the leadership of social worker and UP chief secretary Alok Ranjan’s wife Surabhi Ranjan at Gandhi statue in Hazratganj while Kumar Arvind Singh, principal secretary (transport) flagged off the marathon from KD Singh ‘Babu’ stadium. Surabhi Ranjan even made the participants take a pledge to strictly follow road safety norms.
Sharing some state government initiatives, she said the government was very concerned over the issue and had already formed a road safety committee and road safety fund for the purpose. The road safety policy of the state had already been launched by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in September this year, she added.
Surabhi Ranjan said road safety committees had been made active in every district and identification of accident-prone areas was on. She said 1,020 ‘dark spots’ had already been identi- fied in 65 districts and the committees were mulling corrective measures at these places to curb road accidents.
Earlier, K Ravindra Naik, commissioner (transport), also shared some crucial facts over the issue. He said, “Every four minutes, one person is killed in accidents across the country.”
He said following road safety norms and cutting down on speed would check road accidents to a great extent, and for this, awareness was a must.