Nagaland Motor Vehicles department organized the ‘Road Safety Awareness’ programme on the theme “Time for Action” at IMC hall, here on Tuesday with Advisor Urban Development, S.I. Jamir as the chief guest and Commissioner of Police, Dimapur, Limasunep Jamir, and Legal Aid Counsel & Trainer NSLSA, Limasenla Longkumer as the speakers. The programme was initiated by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in collaboration with Association of State Road Transport Undertaking (ASRTU).
Speaking at the seminar, S.I.Jamir said that road safety awareness campaign was aimed to inspire all the responsible stakeholders to take action on road safety and promote life-saving messages in the society.
Asserting there were some things that people could do to avoid accidents, Jamir called upon all responsible to adhere to road safety rules.
Expressing concern over road condition in Dimapur city besides increase in motor vehicles and traffic jams, Jamir shared his experience on land contribution for road development and said Nagas lacked cooperation when it comes to land contribution.
SI Jamir admitted that though he was part of the government he felt uncomfortable witnessing the road situation in the state. Questioning about missing funds sanctioned for road development, Jamir opined that the motive of implementing agencies or departments should be development and not money making.
Jamir said that there would be no development in the state unless Nagas changed their mentality of only looking for profit without prioritizing development. Taking note of the presence of responsible officials at the programme, the legislator urged them to take the pledge to address traffic concerns.
Delivering speech on “Road accidents”, Commissioner of Police Dimapur, Limasunep Jamir, said that rash driving and drunk driving on poor quality roads accounted for major road accidents in Dimapur.
Highlighting basic road safety standard, Limasunep emphasised on the four Es concept of road safety– Engineering of Roads, Enforcement of Law, Education of Road Safety, and Emergency situation management– in order to promote road safety.
Presenting the statistics of Dimapur road accidents, Limasunep said in the year 2015 Dimapur district reported 14 road fatalities, 12 non-fatalities and 15 lives lost; in 2016 there were 25 road fatalities, 24 non-fatalities and 28 lives lost while so far there have been 14 road fatalities, eight non-fatalities and 20 deaths in 2017.
Further, Limasunep said the causes of the accidents were mostly due to rash and negligence driving/riding, driving in an inebriated state and driving/riding by underage drivers, which he said, has increased drastically in Dimapur.
Commissioner of Police also highlighted the problems of Dimapur traffic and said that increase of human population, increase in vehicular movements, increased transaction, narrow roads, footpath vendors, festivals etc have been causing accidents and traffic congestion.
He appealed to the citizens to avoid drunk driving, underage driving, rush driving and to educate each other on road safety.
Legal Aid Counsel & Trainer NSLSA, Limasenla Longkumer, while presenting a slideshow on the topic “road safety”, urged upon the citizens to wear helmets and seat belts while driving/riding.
Giving road awareness tips, the speaker suggested installing CCTV cameras at regular intervals on highways and should be centrally monitored.
She also suggested construction of flyovers at busy junctions, adding that the cost of which could be paid off easily by saving time, fuel and saving lives. Further, she stressed the need to put up street lights along the main roads so headlight or high beam could be avoided.
Limasenla urged the state government and its agencies to recognize road accidents as the worst problem of the country and identify accident prone areas and improve road safety, adding that Nagaland was also getting the benefits of central schemes on road safety.
Delivering keynote address, Transport Commissioner, Elias T.Lotha, said in Nagaland, the rate of accident was on the rise, saying the causes of accidents could be traced to human factor –– error of the driver.
Transport commissioner stated that an insensitive and unconcerned attitude of the driver often resulted in loss of lives and drain of wealth.
During this year-long road safety campaign, Lotha said all road users including drivers, motorcyclists, cyclist and pedestrians and people engaged in construction must take time out to examine their own behaviour on the road. He also urged them to consider what improvements they could make for themselves and other road users in making journeys safer.
Earlier, the seminar was compèred by Ela Susan James, while NCRC Sumi, Purana bazaar Dimapur pastor, Rev. Dr. Shiwoto Assumi said the invocation. The seminar also witnessed question hour. S.I. Jamir administered the pledge.