More than 9,000 road accidents take place every year in Odisha that kill over 3,900 and leave 11,000 plus others injured. This was revealed by chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik while addressing at the closing ceremony of the State Level Road Safety Week. Principal Secretary, commerce & transport GK Dhal, transport commissioner Surendra Kumar and Khurda collector Roopa Mishra were present at the meeting.
While rash driving, overloading, untrained drivers and poor roads are among the factors that have led to the rise in fatal accidents, a majority (94 per cent) of them were due to drunk driving and human error, the chief secretary pointed out. In the last two years alone, 7,464 people lost their lives in road mishaps.
The state government has now decided to concentrate on proper training to the untrained drivers and initiated talks with Maruti Suzuki and many other automakers to set up modern driving training institutions in the state, Patnaik said.
Odisha is the third state to set up a driving training institute with the help of the largest automaker, Ashok Leyland in Jajpur district. Every year, more than 3,000 drivers would be trained in this institution, he said. Dhal revealed that the state government would frame tough rules against drunken driving. Such drivers’ licences would be cancelled.
He informed that there are 30 lakh vehicles in the state, and the number is rising at a rate of six per cent to seven per cent every year.
The number would reach the 45-lakh mark during the next 10 years. The transport commissioner said that every year the country loses Rs one lakh crore due to road accidents, which is three per cent of the nation’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
Road accident have turned epidemic with 94 per cent of the mishaps being caused by untrained and drunken drivers. He said that the state government is mulling use of speed governors in three-wheelers and four-wheelers.
Source: Orissadiary.com
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