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Udupi district Superintendent of Police (SP) Annamalai said the department has initiated extensive patrolling on the national highways. The vehicles belonging to the drivers who are charged for drunken, rash and negligent driving would be seized.

Addressing the students here at Madhav Pai Memorial College for the awareness programme, ‘Save a life-Accidents and First Aid,’ the SP said stringent measures are taken to curtail the increasing number of accidents. Lamenting over the phenomenon, he said that despite taking strict measures, there is no decline in road accidents.

He said Operation Suraksha which was introduced to curtail the accidents from July 18 would be on trial run for one month. He added that on July 18, the number of cases reported is 831 and on July 19 it was 1,122. The vehicles that are seized would be released only after the driver undergoes the counseling session at the department. He said the highway patrolling would cover the NH extending from Shiroor to Hejamadi and from Perdur to Karkala, he added.

He said that if the experiment proves to be successful, measures would be taken to extend the programme. Asserting that many number of people die in road accidents than of any dreadful disease, the SP said that at least four lakh accidents take place every year in India, where 1.7 lakh deaths are reported. India comes next only to China, which stands first in number of accident deaths taking place in the world. In China, 2.5 lakh accidents deaths take place. However, China has been making an effort to curtail the number and the accidents being reported in China have been decreasing. 

In India, the road accidents are on steep rise, he regretted. Stating that the Supreme Court guidelines emphasise on the 3Es for the increasing number of road accident deaths, Annamalai said the engineering works are faulty. Indian roads are not safe for driving or riding, he added. Lack of enforcements and emergency care are the causes for deaths. Comparing the accident rate in Sweden, the officer said that in 2015, Sweden recorded mere 234 road accidents.

Lack of precautionary measures and not following the preventive measures have emerged out as the main reasons for the accident deaths, he said.

Briefing over the accident data in the district, Annamalai said that 331 people died in 2014. In 2015, the number of deaths had increased to 360 despite the stringent measures. In 2016, up to June, it has increased by 20% when compared to the last year’s figure for the same duration.

The SP said that while a normal person would take one second to react, a person under the influence of alcohol would take three seconds. At least 24 hours is required to flush out the alcohol content from the human body.  He said that 50% accidents can be averted by avoiding rash and negligent driving and 20% accidents can be stopped by avoiding drunken driving.