Black spots can be eliminated by studying traffic pattern, says senior advocate

At black spots, video recording vehicular movement & taking corrective steps to prevent accidents is best way to reduce them, said SC advocate Arun Mohan. Traffic police should note how accident could have been prevented & send to seniors for action. Multi-pronged approach & ad skills to convey safety norms needed. High Court judges refer to accidents of near & dear ones & advise young riders to follow safety norms. 70% of accidents due to speeding. Road safety awareness programmes should be held fortnightly at educational institutions.

Vehicular movement at black spots should be video recorded and necessary corrective steps should be taken to prevent accidents at such spots, said senior Supreme Court advocate Arun Mohan in Mangaluru on Saturday.

Speaking at a workshop on road safety organised jointly by the Karnataka Legal Services Authority and Dakshina Kannada district administration, Mr. Mohan said the best way to bring down the number of accidents is to take action to prevent “near miss” accidents. “At (traffic) black spots, place cameras to record near miss accidents and then take corrective action to prevent such accidents,” he said.

The senior advocate said the traffic police, as part of investigation into motor vehicle accidents, should make a separate note about how that accident could have been prevented. “This note should be the last point of the investigation report on an accident and be sent to senior officials for necessary action,” he said.

While expressing the need of multi-pronged approach and coordinated attention for enforcement of road safety measures, Mr. Mohan said advertisement skills should be used to effectively convey road safety measures, like wearing of helmets by two-wheeler riders and wearing of seat belts in cars, he said.

High Court judge and Executive Chairman of Karnataka State Legal Services Authority G. Nagendar referred to some of the accidents related of his near and dear ones and said only those who have lost their close relatives know the pain of accidents. “For a parent who has lost their child in the accident, it is not just the loss of child but also loss of the dream related to the child,” he said while advising young riders to safely ride vehicles by following all safety norms.

High Court judge B.M. Shyam Prasad said 1.53 lakh people died and 3.84 lakh people were injured in 4.12 lakh accidents reported in the county during 2021. As many as 1.28 lakh (31.2%) accidents were on national highways and expressways, 96,382 (23.4%) on State highways and 1.87 lakh (45.4%) on other roads. Speeding caused nearly 70% of the accidents.

High Court judge K. Somashekar said road safety awareness programmes should be held every fortnight at educational institutions.