State police to conduct ‘Road Safety Month’

Hyderabad: Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Ravi Gupta directed all district SPs and commissioners to conduct ‘Road Safety Month’ with utmost alertness. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has declared January 15 to February 14 as Road Safety Month.

The DGP, in a video conference with all district SPs and commissioners, organised the road safety and railways wing at the DGP office on Tuesday. Transport Commissioner Buddha Prakash, additional DGP (road safety and railway) Mahesh M Bhagwat, Hyderabad city police commissioner Sreenivas Reddy, DIG AV Ranganathan, Road Safety SP Sandeep, and others participated.

DGP Ravi Gupta directed that police officers and personnel should be on high alert for a month from January 15 until February 14.

The DGP said that road safety clubs should be set up in areas where highways are located. He also directed that district road safety bureaus and Commissionerate road safety bureaus should be set up in police offices. He said that the possibility of purchasing speed guns and breathalysers through the challan fine funds should be explored if necessary.

He opined that road accidents are a major cause of death among youth, and they can be controlled through engineering, enforcement, education, and emergency measures.

Ravi Gupta said that road accidents are increasing due to the increasing number of vehicles, lack of caution among passengers, and other factors such as not wearing helmets, not wearing seat belts, over speeding, dangerous driving, and talking on mobile phones while driving.

The DGP said, as per available records, in 2022, in road accidents, over 7,500 persons died in Telangana, whereas 1,68,000 persons died all over India.

Ravi Gupta said the Good Samaritan felicitations may be done to save lives in road accidents. He clarified to police officers that such measures should not be limited to this month but should be followed in the long term as well.