Accident fatality boards to be put up on Pune roads

Commuters in the city will now have lessons to learn even as they drive. City-based NGO Save Pune Traffic Movement (SPTM) to spread awareness about the severity of road accidents has decided to put up boards in various places around the city displaying monthly updates of fatal accidents along with their facts and figures.

Rajendra Sidhaye, member of SPTM, said, “We have observed that mere preaching does not convey the severity of the road accidents to the commuters. Therefore, we have decided to install ‘accident fatality scoreboards’ at prominent locations in the city.”
Sidhaye said, “We will be putting up figures and charts of the fatalities  and update these figures every month. These updates will keep reminding citizens and authorities about their responsibilities to make Pune’s traffic safer.”

SPTM had launched ‘Save 100 lives’ campaign in January with the objective of significantly reducing traffic accident fatalities in Pune. Sidhaye said, “Nearly 50% of the casualties are two-wheeler riders and one-third of the fatalities are pedestrians. Hence, SPTM is focusing on these two road-user
categories.”

Sidhaye added, “We see lot of schoolgoing children walking to school, and since the footpaths are not proper in the city, many of them are forced to walk on the streets making it dangerous for them.

“Therefore, we are planning to distribute reflective strips to the students in schools, which they can stick on their school bags.  These reflective strips will give additional time to the motorists to see the students and thus gain control over their vehicles.”