With the vehicle population multiplying fast in the country, better roadbehaviour and adherence to simple but essential safety measures have becomecritical. Human behaviour is one of the major contributors inaccidents-people break rules knowingly, especially when they are alone andunsupervised in vehicles. That is where Maruti, the largest producer ofvehicles in India, has decided to step in. ``We are trying to raiseawareness of traffic regulations and recognise people doing credible work indisseminating information about road safety regulations,'' says JagdishKhattar, managing director, Maruti Udyog Limited.Maruti has identified road safety, traffic management and curbing pollutionas the focus areas in its social responsibility policy, according toKhattar. The latest, in a series of initiatives by the company, is the RoadSafety awards to school children, traffic police constables, police controlroom drivers and Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) bus drivers in New Delhi.
``Road safety and its awareness is the call of the hour. While the role oftraffic police constables and PCR drivers is obvious, school children andbus drivers can play an important role in spreading the message of safedriving,'' says Rohit Baluja, president, the Institute of Road TrafficEducation (IRTE).
IRTE instituted the awards seven years back in coordination with the DelhiTraffic Police. ``We are committed to reduce the number of road accidentsand decrease the risk of serious injuries they cause. Competitions likethese gauge the level of awareness of road laws among school-children, busdrivers and police personnel and help us know where we have gone wrong intheir application,'' says Baluja.
The participants in the competition can form the nucleus of a campaign toimprove the knowledge of traffic rules in the country. The bus drivers ofDelhi are responsible for the safe carriage of over 6 million passengersevery day. Given the odds they face because of shortcomings in road andtraffic engineering, mixed and chaotic traffic, difficult trip timings andbad vehicle conditions, the drivers get flak from many sections of thesociety.
Traffic police constables in the ratio of 1: 1,000 vehicles in the Capitalhave to brave the worst of air and sound pollution and deal with driversunwilling to follow traffic rules.
Young school students are the citizens of tomorrow. ``Events like these willensure that they grow up as mature responsible adults who understand thevalue of safe driving and obey traffic regulations,'' says Khattar.
Over 300 children from 55 schools participated in vocabulary and paintingcompetitions related to the theme of road safety. From amongst these, theVasant Valley School won the Inter School Running Road Safety trophy.
Twenty five PCR drivers and an equal number of DTC drivers took written andoral tests on knowledge of traffic and field tests in driving. On the basisof their excellent performances, PCR driver Sujender Singh and DTC driverNarender Kumar were selected for IRTE Safe Driver Awards.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.