The Punjab State Road Safety Council (PSRSC), under the chairmanship of the Transport Minister Razia Sultana, on Tuesday reviewed the road safety measures and action taken by the stakeholders on implementation of road safety laws in the state.Chairing the meeting here, the Minister directed the officials to implement some major decisions including purchase of reflectors to cover nearly 50,000 stray cattle and rectify all the black spots by March 31, 2021, besides conducting Crash Investigation of all the major road accidents in the State.Divulging the details, an official spokesperson of the department said that 502 road accidents with stray animals are reported in Punjab during the last three years (2015-2018) in which 370 people lost their lives, 157 seriously injured and 59 got minor injuries. This problem becomes more serious due to foggy conditions during the months of December to February. The meeting also decided that due to intense foggy conditions in the state there is a need to put fluorescent reflectors on stray cattle and for this purpose council will incur the expenditure of nearly Rs.25 lakhs for the purchase of reflectors to cover nearly 50,000 stray cattle in the state.
While informing about black spots, he said that an accident black spot is a road corridor of about 500 meter long stretch on which either 5 road accidents involving fatalities and grievous injuries had been reported during the last 3 calendar years or 10 fatalities during the last 3 years. Total 391 black spots have been identified on National Highways in Punjab. NHAI informed the meeting that 91 black spots have already been rectified. The council directed the NHAI and PWD to rectify all the black spots by March 31, 2021.In order to bring down fatalities in the state from 14 per day to at least the National Average 7 per day, it was decided to conduct Crash Investigation of all the major road accidents in the state to ascertain the reasons for the accidents which could have happened due to the engineering fault, lack of enforcement, vehicle fault etc, so that remedial measures can be initiated. It was also decided by PSRSC to conduct a Third Party Audit of all the vulnerable road stretches in the State by an independent agency.It was decided to expedite the purchase of equipment for road safety like speed guns, breath analyzers; filling up of vacant posts in lead agencies and implementation of directions issued by the Supreme Court Committee of Road Safety. The Minister advised all the agencies involved in the road safety to work in mission mode so that precious lives can be saved. Principal Secretary Transport K. Siva Prasad, DG (Lead agency) Venkataratnam and Sharad Chohan, ADGP, Traffic also attended the meeting.