Maintain good health, Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner tells autorickshaw and school bus drivers

City Police conducted sensitisation programme involving auto-rickshaw drivers, school bus drivers & parents. Police Commissioner stressed on need for drivers to maintain good health & conduct medical camp. Deputy Transport Commissioner appealed to drivers not to allow more than 6 children. Police mulling to reduce speed limit & auto-rickshaw drivers discussed issues with police. Medical camp conducted for drivers & tests revealed abnormal results in some.

After the auto-rickshaw accident at Sangam-Sarat Junction a few days ago, which left eight school students injured, the city police have conducted a sensitisation programme involving auto-rickshaw drivers, private school bus drivers and parents at YVS Murthy Auditorium here on Sunday. Managements of several schools and officials from the Transport Department have also attended.

Speaking on the occasion, Police Commissioner A. Ravi Shankar stressed on the need for auto-rickshaw drivers and school bus drivers to maintain good health and said that the city police have decided to conduct a medical camp in which blood pressure, eye and cardio tests were conducted. He said that the city police have interacted with several stakeholders and NGOs working on road accidents and took their opinion. “This apart, we have also interacted with autorickshaw drivers and private school bus drivers and took their opinion,” he said, adding that the Police Department would come up with an action plan to control the road accidents.

Deputy Transport Commissioner G.C. Raja Ratnam appealed to the autorickshaw drivers not to allow more than six children in their vehicles. He said if an accident occurs due to overspeeding or negligent driving, the drivers were not entitled to get insurance.

ADCP Traffic G. Srinivasa Rao said that the police were mulling to reduce the speed limit from 60 kmph to 40 kmph in the city, to control the speedsters. He has also appealed to the auto-rickshaw drivers to undergo health check-up once in every three months.

Doctors from Visakha Eye Hospital informed the drivers that there was a need for the drivers to check their sight from time to time, since eyes take lot of stress during driving. Doctors from Medicover Hospitals explained the importance of golden hour and they briefed them about the first-aid to be given to the injured.

During the programme, autorickshaw drivers also explained about their issues to the police personnel. All the drivers expressed their grief over the accident occurred a few days back, resulting in injuries to six children. Some of them stated that most of the parents were not willing to pay more due to which they were forced to carry more than six children. They also informed them that due to increase in the cost of fuel, prices of essential commodities, EMIs of the autorickshaws, they are forced to make more trips and allow more than the permissible number of passengers. Some drivers informed that they also take strict note of traffic violations and impose fine on the fellow drivers in the stands, if they violate the rules or drive in an inebriated condition. A few drivers also said that they were not allowing drivers, affiliated to their unions, to use mobile phones and electrical gadgets while driving. Some of them appealed to the police not to impose hefty fines.

During the programme, the city police have organised a medical camp for the drivers by a team of doctors. Eye tests were conducted on 156 drivers in which 46 of them were found to have some problems. B.P tests were conducted on about 320 persons, among them 74 results were abnormal. Similarly, blood sugar results were abnormal in 68 drivers of the total 320. ECG was abnormal in about 32 out of total 123 drivers.