60 attend road safety training event

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 11

Five-day training programme on road safety by Punjab Engineering College (PEC), in collaboration with the Asian Institute of Transport Development, New Delhi, under the aegis of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, began here on Monday.

The programme is for field engineers to build capacity in the area of road safety. The training was attended by more than 60 delegates from across India. Keshni Anand Arora, Additional Chief Secretary, Haryana, was the chief guest.

There are 25 sessions in the training programme covering a variety of subject areas, including engineering and non-engineering measures, related to road safety. It also covers advance topics on intelligent transportation systems (ITS), road safety auditing and modern techniques in visibility improvement on roads.

Prof Umesh Sharma, coordinator of the programme, said the programme would be a continuous process for capacity building in the area of road safety across the country. “Worldwide, more than 1.3 million people die and up to 20-50 million people incur non-fatal injuries annually as a result of road crashes. Further, major contributors to these numbers are developing countries such as India which has seen over one million people lose their lives on its roads during the last decade.”

Arora mentioned how an accident could impact your life by adding her own experience. She highlighted the need to reduce accidents by implementing safety measures, organising such safety programmes and training activities.

She talked about the four Es — education, engineering, enforcement and emergency — which are the pillars of road safety. She said: “Although the National Highways constitute only 13 per cent of the total road infrastructure, yet they are not properly designed which resulted in about 1, 50,000 road fatalities.”