Road safety project to focus on drunk driving

HYDERABAD: The department for health and family welfare along with the World Health Organisation is taking up a five-year Road Safety (RS-10) project in the country. The project was launched here on Wednesday as Andhra Pradesh is one of the two states selected for the project, the other being Punjab.India is one of the ten countries included in the WHO Road Safety in 10 countries project which will be conducted over 5-years by a consortium of six international partners. The project aims to tackle road accidents and deaths  in view of the increasing number of people losing their lives in road mishaps. With a belief that preventive measures towards drunken driving and well organised trauma-care services can reduce the problem, the project aims at providing the city police alchometers, digital cameras and road barricades. Health minister DL Ravinder Reddy, who was present on the occasion, suggested that liquor shops be closed by 7 p.m. and pubs and bars by 10 p.m. Police should be strict while booking cases against drunken driving and must not let the rich go scotfree, he added.Additional commissioner of police (Traffic) CV Anand requested Amit Arora, national professional officer, WHO, to provide the city police with advanced alcometers with which they could calculate the exact amount of alcohol in the blood of the drivers booked for drunken driving and also through which they could give printouts of the time at which the police issued the notice. Amit Arora said the project was being launched at a cost of $125 million across 10 countries. Not only will the city police be given equipment, but training would be imparted to the paramedical staff, staff nurses, casualty medical officers and specialists in first responder training, international trauma life support training and comprehensive trauma life support training. A baseline study has been conducted on road safety interventions available at present. This will be compared with the interventions under RS-10 and will be analysed by February next. Also, social awareness campaign is being taken up to implement the project more effectively.