ACTIVITIES
Sent comments/suggestions on request to Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament of India) on National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board Bill, 2010
15 June 2010, New Delhi, India.
The National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board Bill, 2010 has been referred to the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture for examination and report.
This Bill seeks to establish a dedicated and integrated agency - the National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board for the orderly development, regulation, promotion and optimization of modern and effective road safety and traffic management system and practices in relation to the national highways. The Board would also ensure improved safety standards in highway design, construction, operation and regulate high standards in production and maintenance of mechanically propelled vehicles and for related matters. ArriveSAFE members have studied the Bill and have sent comments/suggestions on the bill as requested.
Helmet Awareness and Distribution Campaign - International Women's Day
8 March 2010, Chandigarh, India.
The Hon'ble Court has exempted women of a particular religion from wearing helmets considering their religious sentiments. Since it is difficult to identify women religion wise, most of the women don't wear safety helmets.
We held an awareness campaign along with the Chandigarh Traffic Police on the 8th March 2010, The International Women's Day. Young girls were informed about the importance of Safety Helmets. Free helmets were distributed to the participants and an Awareness Rally was taken out on the day. The gathering was addressed by the Inspector General of Police, Chandigarh, Mr. P.K.Srivastava, IPS.
As per the World Health Organization, most deaths of two-wheelers are a result of head injuries. Wearing a motorcycle helmet correctly can cut the risk of death by almost 40%, and the risk of severe injury by 70%.
Jagman Jagriti Ki
ArriveSAFE society, Chandigarh in association with Haryana Police, Panchkula initiated ‘Jagmag Jagriti Ki at Panchkula. The campaign educated vulnerable road users about responsible road behaviour through posters and interaction. In pursuance of its goal of saving valuable lives, ArriveSAFE profiled their cycles, rickshaws, rehris and carts with luminous tapes to enhance their visibility during night. Over 1000 of these cycles, rickshaws, rehris and carts were profiled in the Panchkula Industrial Area by the Panchkula Police.
SP Panchkula, Amitabh Dhillon reiterated Haryana Police’s commitment to educate masses about road crashes as it is the leading cause of death in the most productive age of 15-29 years - a loss an emerging young nation can ill-afford.
The aim of this sustained campaign is to generate awareness and ensure that positive results are reflected in the form of reduced number of deaths and injuries. Mostly road traffic injuries and deaths result in loss of bread-winner or push families into perpetual debt in the absence of social safety net.
Bonding for a Safe Lifetime Journey
ArriveSAFE in association with Chandigarh Traffic Police organized ‘BONDING FOR A SAFE LIFETIME JOURNEY’ on the auspicious occasion of Rakhi . The drive was undertaken to personally reach out to girls and women of the city with special Rakhis that attempt to solicit promise from their brothers about safe and responsible road behaviour. International volunteers from six countries along with female staff of Traffic police distributed 5000 ‘ArriveSAFE Rakhis’.
The campaign was sponsored by GoGlobal Consultants, Chandigarh.
A day prior to Rakhi a ‘Rakhi tying’ event was orgnanised at Delhi Public School , Sector 40 Chandigarh. Small kids tied Rakhi’s to the drivers and conductors of their buses. Kids also tied Rakhi’s to the team members of Chandigarh traffic police. This has been a unique attempt to reach drivers and conductors on the occasion of Rakshabandan - festival that instills commitment to protection. This first of its kind activity in whole of India was aimed to designate them as protector of vulnerable but promising pupils – the future of families, society and the nation.
Ms Reema Dewan, principal appreciated efforts undertaken by ArriveSAFE to inculcate the spirit of Road Safety in the young minds through this novel method. She stressed the needs for installation of speed governors in school buses and asked ArriveSAFE to conduct special sessions for senior school children who will be soon graduating to be licensed drivers. Similar event was organized at DAV International School Amrtisar.
Test conducted for Drivers of Government Department
ArriveSAFE conducted test for candidates for the post of drivers for a Government Department on 11th and 12th of July 2009. It was for the first time that such an initiative. It was a Multimedia based multiple choice question based test. The image based question and possible options were displayed on the screen and the candidates had to select the correct answer. The test was conducted in the auditorium of Chandigarh Traffic Police Lines, Chandigarh.
After this preliminary screening, the shortlisted candidates would go through a driving test where marks would be assigned for each maneuver. This would ensure that the department gets Safe and Responsible drivers.
Road safety Campaigns
In March 2009 ArriveSAFE organised awareness campaign on behalf of Ministry of Surface Transport and Highways, Government of India. ArriveSAFE with the support of Chandigarh Traffic Police, Chandigarh Transport Undertaking and Registration & Licensing Authority, Chandigarh reached to a cross-section of road users through this campaign. The theme of the campaign was that accidents are not will of God, but are causative in nature and hence preventable. The campaign focussed on leading human factors like speeding, driving under influence, fatigue, multitasking, non-use of restraints and conveyed associated risks to driver’s life and to that of others especially the vulnerable road users (VRU’s). It incorporated two emotional messages, one of the father and other that of the husband of road crash victims to appeal to people to be sensitive to fellow road users and adopt responsible behaviour. The campaign reached out through street play “Sadak hamare baap ki”, pamphlets and talks by road crash victim’s family members. Fourteen street play were organised at prominent locations in the city like Sector 17 Piazza, Sukhna Lake, Rose Garden, Chandigarh Transport Undertaking workshop, colony no 5, PU Students Centre and other places. Thousands of pamphlets were
distributed at the sites where these street play were organised and at two leading petrol pumps of Chandigarh. These pamphlets have also been made part of new application forms being issued by Registration & Licensing Authority, Chandigarh for issuance of driving license and registration of new vehicles. As part of the campaign reflective tapes were put over 500 cycles, rickshaws and rehris to educate them about adoption of low cost affordable measures to mitigate their vulnerability.
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Quiz on Road safety at Chennai
A quiz on road safety was conducted on 12.1.2009 at the Madras School of Social Work, Egmore, Chennai in partnership with Lions Club Of Silver Pearls. The National Service Scheme (NSS) program office Prof. Lavanya welcomed the gathering. The Principal of the School of Social Work addressed the gathering and stressed the need for safe driving habits. The State Coordinator for NSS, Dr Raja Hussain said that road safety is a key area of work for the NSS. Details of the event are available on the Sukriti website at Quiz on Road Safety.
Designed and provided material for Road safety education to SMEC INDIA
Designed and provided material for Road safety education to SMEC INDIA for their GTRIP – Road Safety (Public Education) project covering the Chennai to Kolkata section of Golden Quadrilateral, West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
SMEC INDIA | Letter from SMEC
World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims - 2008
ArriveSAFE, observed the United Nations World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Sunday 16th of November at Sukhna Lake, Chandigarh in association with The Chandigarh Industrial and Tourism Development Corporation Limited (CITCO) and AIESEC, an International Student Organization. Together with victim’s relatives, students and professionals ArriveSAFE remembered the road accident victims. This day was observed to draw public’s attention to road traffic crashes, their consequences and costs, and the measures which can be taken to prevent them. ArriveSAFE exhibited 300 pair of shoes including some belonging to road crash victims to convey the number of Indian being killed on the roads daily and subsequent trauma felt by family. Later balloons were released to commemorate road crash victims. Road safety messages were displayed at lake to educate masses about safe driving behaviour and soveniours with road safety message were distributed to general public.
Why is there a need for World Day?
Road deaths and injuries are sudden, violent, traumatic events, and their impact is long-lasting, often permanent. Each year, millions of newly bereaved and injured people from every corner of the world are added to the many millions already suffering as the result of a road crash.
The sense of grief and distress of this huge group of people is all the greater because many of the victims are young, because many of the crashes could and should have been prevented and because the response to road death and injury and to road crash victims is often experienced as inadequate, cruelly unsympathetic, and inappropriate to a loss of life or quality of life.
Don't Drink and Drive Campaign
As part of our initiatives, last Diwali a special “Don’t Drink and Drive Campaign” was held in sector 17 piazza in coordination with Chandigarh Traffic Police along with the support of AIESEC. As part of the event, Greeting Cards with a message against Drinking Driving were distributed to the general public by taking out a march in sector 17 piazza.
Thereafter the message against Drinking Driving was reinforced by lighting candles in the shape of “Don’t Drink & Drive”. This drive was planned keeping into consideration the Diwali festivity as more people in their celebrations tend to indulge in Drinking Driving.
Media Coverage | Photos
Seminar/Talk on Road Safety with focus on students at Udaipur, Rajasthan
Lions Club, Udaipur organized a talk on 6th October 2008 for the students of class 11th and 12th of every school of Udaipur telling them about the hazards of sloppy driving habits and the ill effects of not following traffic rules. The primary target audience was two wheeler drivers who have recently started driving, so the effort was to teach them to follow road safety measures which could result in reduction of accidents in the city. These students would then also advocate their parents on the safe driving habits.
The mission was started from Maharana Mewar Public School Campus with due blessings from Shreeji Arvind Singhji Mewar. Shri Lakshyaraj Singhji Mewar graced the program with his presence.
This event has been managed by the secretary of the club, Lion Rakesh Samar who is very passionate on the road safety measures such as wearing of helmets, usage of seat belts etc..
In future also, The Lions Club would work closely with ArriveSafe for developing road safety programs to increase knowledge, awareness and skills amongst all types of road users.
The Traffic Police Department of Udaipur also extended its support to the program and Dy. Superintendent of Police, Shri Harsh Ratnu attended the seminar. Local media also gave give wide publicity to the event.
Saving Parrots Habitat
This is a totally different mission than road safety but everyone including the birds has the right to ArriveSafe. The city Municipal Corporation had put up high lights that illuminated the area forcing the parrots to flee the area where they had been staying for decades.
Candle Light Vigil
We joined the family of the deceased to mark the 1st anniversary. It’s a very sad scene with the close family members out there with moist eyes. Life goes on for other road users, some of them looking staring as if the same cannot happen to them. Ironically, the round-about still remains as it was one year back though it was pointed out that bad road engineering was an important reason for the crash. Another road user lost his life a few days back at the same place.
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Road Safety Week 2008
ArriveSafe conducted various activities with the Chandigarh Traffic Police and Haryana Police during the Road Safety Week. Banners against drunken driving and unsafe driving were put up at all dhabas (roadside eating joints) and liquor vends in Kurukshetra district of Haryana. Though, we feel there should be a couple of “365 days of safety”. This would set the right trend amongst the road users. Once the existing road users start following the rules, the new ones would automatically follow them.
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Lectures in Schools
We feel the educational institutions should squeeze in some time to educate the students about the importance of road safety. It’s important to inculcate good habits at an early stage. “The curriculum already is stressful and too much for the students”, feel some teachers but regular events can still be held. We are glad that some schools have welcomed this idea and are starting this.
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Collision Course - A UNO BBC Documentary
Harman Singh Sidhu, President of ArriveSafe Society of Chandigarh, who has been selected as protagonist by UN Global Road Safety Week starting on the 23rd April 07 is back after visiting Sao Paulo, Brazil & New Delhi, India. The road safety documentary would be broadcasted in 34 countries through their National TV channels after being dubbed in the local languages. The documentary is being produced by Television Trust for the Environment (tve.org) on behalf of BBC.
The documentary starts with Harman explaining his personal experience as a Road Traffic Accident (RTA) victim and how he started his campaign on Road Safety. He was surprised to know that even in Brazil, the road safety campaigns are mainly taken up by persons who have either lost a near one or got incapacitated in a RTA.
In these 15 days, he met officials and prominent persons who are related to Road Safety or are working in departments such as public health, education & enforcement, road engineering etc. Both these middle income countries (Brazil & India) lose a substantial part of their GDP because of RTAs with India losing a lot more than Brazil. Brazil has developed a world class road infrastructure while India is still in the process of doing it in patches. It was also felt that the licensing system in India needs to be improved with officials and public largely blaming poor knowledge of the drivers as a major reason for the RTAs.
A National Traffic Code should be evolved and implemented. Brazil implemented National Traffic Code in 1998 and it helped them reduce the RTAs. Interestingly the drunken driver can refuse taking the breath analyzer test and the police cannot force him to take the test. Drunken driving is a major cause of RTAs in both countries. Though in India, occasionally Government officials talk of the menace of drunken driving, the liquor vends are being brought closer to the roads prompting the drivers to drink and drive.
As anyone who drives in developed countries knows - traffic management is now a fine art. But even the basic principles of such management are seldom passed on or adhered to in poorer countries – well over three quarters of all accidents globally happen in low and middle income countries – all too often countries such as India accept road crashes as a fact of life.
It was emphasized that a separate road safety department or ministry should be formulated that should co-ordinate amongst the various agencies related to RTAs. Many felt that these RTAs have to increase as the countries make economic progress but the accidents should not be a reflection of the economic growth. The Planning Commission in India has put the social cost of road accidents at Rs 55,000 crore during 1999-2000, which constitute about 3% of GDP for the year.
Harman had a very fruitful interaction with the office bearers of NGOs promoting road safety in Brazil. ArriveSafe would work in close co-ordination with Brazilian NGOs to spread the message of Road Safety in both the countries. Projeto Vida Urgente no Palco (Project Urgent Life in the Palco - http://www.vidaurgente.com.br/) has been started by a lady who lost her son in RTA. As a part of their activities, they paint a butterfly at the black spot on the road which has a very positive impact on the road users. The activists also visit the bars and pubs and prompt people to take breath analyzer test. They give different color butterflies depending upon the content of alcohol in their body. It was interesting to see people coming forward to check their alcohol level. It is a subtle way of spreading the message of road safety.
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Faces behind the figures: voices of road traffic crash victims and their families
The World Health Organization and the Association for Safe International Road Travel have jointly developed a book entitled "Faces behind the figures: voices of road traffic crash victims and their families", to put a human face on the statistics presented in the many road safety reports published around the world.
The stories demonstrate the physical, psychological, emotional and economic devastation that results from road traffic injuries. These stories deepen our 
understanding of the enormous suffering behind each of the 1.2 million deaths and 50 million injuries every year. Despite the losses experienced, a number of the affected victims and their families used this tragedy to initiate activities to promote road safety in their countries and around the world. We remind readers that the handful of stories in this book represent only a minuscule fraction of the lives lost, families shattered, and countless others hurt around the world by this epidemic.
The cries of pain in this book are echoed a million times a year, over 3 000 times a day. They are a call for action – and they demand a response. We hope that individuals, organizations and governmental agencies can use these stories to raise public awareness, capture media attention and help create a political and social environment that will not tolerate inaction and will demand road safety improvement.
Harman's story is on page 22 of the publication.
Download the publication
Road Safety Week 2007
As each year, ArriveSafe enthusiastically celebrated Road Safety Week, held from 2nd January to 7th January 2007in co-ordination with the Chandigarh Traffic Police and Ambala Police. The Road Safety Week was marked with a series of activities.
A software developed by ArriveSafe for testing the theoretical knowledge of the license seekers' was launched. Lectures and presentations were given in the colleges.
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World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
ArriveSafe and Chandigarh Traffic Police organised a workshop on road safety rules at Dev Samaj College for Girls, Chandigarh. The workshop was organised to remember road traffic accident victims who lost their lives in various accidents. Traffic rules and regulations tips were given to the audience by harman Singh Sidhu and Amar Manchanda of Traffic Awareness Organisation. We interacted with the students, teahers and the general public present during the awareness campaign.
A silence for 30 seconds was observed to mourn and remember the traffic victims and a painting competition was organised by the Chandigarh Librarians' Association on the occasion.
Leaflets aimed to create traffic awareness
Road activity grows as the economy grows. As travel and transport activity increases, so does the risk of accidents and incidents.
We are designing leaflets to raise awareness of the optimum way of tackling traffic situations, understanding of road positioning and importance of using safety gadgets like helmets and seat belts. The leaflets will be based on illustrations so that an illiterate road user can also understand it.
Drivers who are caught driving carelessly, speeding or doing any other offence would be given these leaflets when they come to pay the fines for the offences comitted by them. The fine would work as a deterrant and the leaflet would educate them about the risks.
We are obliged to Ambala Police for helping us launch this campaign.
ASIRT-WHO
Submission of a chapter for the joint book of the World Health Organization (WHO) and Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT) "FACES BEHIND THE FIGURES - VOICES OF ROAD TRAFFIC INJURY VICTIMS AND THEIR FAMILIES."
There is growing research and documentation on the magnitude of road traffic injuries. Most of the research is based on quantitative methods, a number of which seek to test hypotheses. Though quantitative analysis is necessary to describe and explain the magnitude of the road traffic injury problem, they do not capture the emotional impact – nor they do not attach a face or a story to the numbers. There are human faces behind the impressive and sometimes complex statistical models. The faces have a continuum of experiences – on one hand are some victims and their families who are shattered, many remaining emotionally and economically incapacitated – while on the other hand, there are victims, families and members of society who refuse to be victimized, they turn the injury and loss into an opportunity to do something.
The purpose of this book is to present first account experiences of victims and their families when they encountered road traffic collisions.
ASIRT
Sukriti social foundation
Sukriti social foundation is a Chennai based NGO working for the disabled. It works in the areas of
- Advocacy
- Prevention of disability
- Distribution of assistive devices
- Job placements for the disabled
As part of their efforts to prevent disability, they conduct road safety campaigns in Chennai.
They are conducting workshops to create awareness about road safety amongst school children, college students, drivers of all public vehicles. We have provided them help in developing the content.
Sukriti Social Foundation
IIT Kanpur
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur is one of the premier institutions established by the government of India.
The traffic group at IIT Kanpur works to make residents and students of IIT Kanpur aware about rpad safety and traffic rules. We have provided them content to be screened in their institution and making it accessible to IITK's users via our intranet.
Ramprasad Potluri, Assistant Professor,
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India
Ph: (W) (91) (512) 2596093, (H) 2598837
E-mail: potluri@iitk.ac.in
Sustainable Urban Transport Project
Sustainable Urban Transport Project
SUTP-Asia is a partnership between the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA, CITYNET and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) which aims to help developing world cities achieve their sustainable transport goals, through the dissemination of information about international experience and targeted work with particular cities.
Sustainable Urban Transport Project
Traffic Education Material
- Traffic education material (website, CD, banners, roll ups, displays, pamphlets, lecture aids, educational aids, media presentation) for Chandigarh traffic police.
- Training material for Chandigarh traffic police personnel
- Software for first aid education in spreading awareness of how first aid can help minimise injuries and deaths.
- Analysis of international information resources & making the India specific information available.
- Publishing fascinating facts on road safety.
- To work with schools, employers and other organizations to promote road-safety education to drivers, school children and pedestrians.
- Campaigns for promotion of use of reflectors and wearing reflective clothes amongst cyclists, richshaws and pedestrians.
- Encouraging new initiatives in the area of traffic safety like promoting helmets for cyclists.
- Raise awareness about road traffic injuries, their grave consequences and enormous costs to society.
