The Hindu : Officials yet to come to grips with safety issues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Officials yet to come to grips with safety issues

By S. Shivakumar

CHENNAI JAN. 6. With over 12 lakhs vehicle population and a legion of untrained drivers, Chennai has begun another introspection of its chaotic road conditions, at the Road Safety Week that began today.

Though boasting a lower fatality rate during 2002, in absolute terms, 500 lives were lost in the city. The shifting of the bus traffic out of the city has been welcomed as a major relief for the rest of the road user community, and the level of trauma cases at Government hospitals in the central part of the city has come down.

Yet, the Transport Department and Police have not come to grips with major road safety issues, road users lament.

Despite the sharp rise in the number of vehicles registered in the city, almost all RTOs have no testing track for applicants. Even the traffic park at Vepery, meant to teach children the rules, is in a `paralysed' state.

Studies have shown that rash and negligent driving and poor road conditions are the major factors behind accidents. Yet, there is no organised effort to ensure the twin "E"s-education and enforcement-when it concerns some classes of motorists.

The Transport Department, say analysts, is issuing licences for drivers of autorickshaws without rigorous tests, despite knowing fully well that there are only a handful of training schools for three wheelers in the city. The majority of over 50,000 autorickshaw drivers are self-taught, are illiterate about traffic signs, and many are even unlicensed.

In contrast to the "stiff" enforcement that some motorists encounter in the city, entire classes of drivers like autorickshaws and buses ignore the road rules--whether it is stop lines, yellow lines, lane discipline or signals.

"Whether it is Gemini or Anna Nagar or Adyar, even a cursory glance will show that all checks, for papers, for drunken driving and road rules is confined to owners of private vehicles. The unionised classes of vehicles are simply out of the traffic police ambit", says a member of a motoring association.

School transport is also a major issue, where the initiatives such as Citizens for Safe Roads have not made significant headway. Private school vans are often driven by youth, who are semi-literate, untrained and capable of creating major disasters, such as the ghastly road death of a child in Velachery in front of his father's eyes.

"Why is not the Police, instead of issuing periodic warnings, coming out with a training schedule for all these drivers", asks a parent whose children commute to a K.K.Nagar school by van from Virugambakkam.

"The importance given to VIP security and for convoy movement is not given for safety at school zones. Compounding the problem is the regularisation scheme by the CMDA and the mushrooming of commercial establishments and hotels which do not provide sufficient parking space", traffic planners point out.

After pretending that the problem did not exist, the enforcement personnel played safe and removed the fishcarts, which were posing a serious threat to other road users - because they were ordered by the High Court to do so.

Ignored in all road safety discussions, the pedestrians have to little to cheer about in this year's road safety week too. A small group of protesting pedestrians were removed from the TVS bus stop recently, when they insisted on walking a short distance, with a yellow helmet fitted with rear view mirrors. They were removed to a Police Station.

"This is an instance when at least some officer could have spoken to them and assured pedestrians of help, but the city's traffic management centres on vehicle movement, not people", said an activist.

During the week, "pelican signals" - pedestrian actuated signals - will be put up outside seven colleges, under a scheme co-ordinated by Media Mix. These are Stella Maris, MOP Vaishnav, Anna Adarsh, Valliammal, Meenakshi, Chellammal and another institution.

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