At least 30,000 bystanders and roadside communities including eateries, small repair shops, fuel stations, police personnel, etc. shall be trained on First Aid Pre-hospital trauma care to assist the accident victims within the Golden Hour on National and state highways in Odisha.

“The six-month campaign to train the roadside community on National and state highways will begin from 8 November and Rs 8 crore has been sanctioned for the project by the state government,” said Arun Bothra, Commissioner, Odisha State Transport Corporation while speaking at the webinar on ‘Enforcement Innovations for Road safety’ organized by the India chapter of the International Road Federation (IRF).

“Other than enforcing the law on traffic violations the road engineering and related agencies should also be taken into consideration. In Odisha, each year about 350 black spots on national and state highways are spotted and the concerned authorities informed. Most of them are removed or rectified on paper and the same Black spots are spotted again next year”, he said. The state government has deputed a dedicated team of experts to remove the black spots.

The government has tied up with Red Cross for training which includes First aid said Bothra.

“Road signages in most of the highways in the state are faulty, all the road signages and traffic lights will be corrected as per global standards in two years time”, he added.

“India accounts for more than 11 per cent of the global road accident deaths mainly due to absence of safety measures. Many fatalities and serious injuries on Indian roads could have been saved if recommended road

safety actions had been implemented, United Nations has set a global ‘Decade of Action’ plan for Road Safety which aims to reduce road fatalities by 50 per cent till 2030 and Indian Road Transport and Highway Minister Mr Nitin Gadkari has set the year 2025 as a target for reducing road deaths by 50% “ said Satish Parakh, President, International Road Federation, India chapter (IRF-IC) while speaking at the webinar.

IRF-IC has embarked upon an on-ground Road Safety initiative covering the seven worst-affected highway stretches of 150-200 km each in the 7 States with the highest road accidents including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Kerala and Karnataka, he informed.