IIT Madras’ Centre of Excellence for Road Safety hosts ‘Zero Accident Day’ Campaign in partnership with Greater Chennai Traffic Police  

It is a 20-day comprehensive road safety campaign aiming to achieve zero road accidents, improve road safety awareness among drivers & promote responsible driving practices

CHENNAI : The road network in India has grown at a rate of 59% in the past nine years and stands as second in the world with the largest road network of 66.71 lakh km as of 2023. Every year, the country loses an average of 1,50,000 people to road accidents, of whom 25% of people are under 25 years old and 89% of people are under 60 years old.

These are the productive working population of India, leading to a tremendous socio-economic loss for families, society and the Nation. 

The Centre of Excellence for Road Safety, IIT Madras, is working with the Greater Chennai Traffic Police (GCTP) on multiple capacity and capability improvement programs. As many as 69 investigating officers (IOs) have been upskilled in performing scientific crash investigations to identify the root causes of the crashes. A total of 40 children and 80 schoolteachers and parents were introduced to gamified activity-based learning of road safety to improve their knowledge and cognition on being an informed road user.

The awareness campaign for ‘Zero Accident Day ‘(ZAD) was inaugurated at the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) Depot by Thiru R Sudhakar, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), GCTP, in the presence of Dr Alby John Varghese, IAS, Managing Director, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC), Professor Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Head, CoERS, IIT Madras, Thiru Bandi Gangadhar, IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Traffic) South, Thiru P Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Traffic) North, and Thiru V Baskaran, Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Traffic) East.

CoERS organized capacity building workshops at IIT Madras to drive activity-based learning (ABL) on road safety rules, signages and etiquette for Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) bus drivers, school children, teachers and traffic wardens. In Addition, GCTP has engineered several initiatives at community level, such as engaging the vibrant youth as stakeholders, by means of a reel making competition, and several flashmobs are part of the campaign.

Programmes are also underway to engage other sections of society including sensitising e-commerce platforms and their staff, IT firms, and engagements with hospitals, auto-rickshaw drivers, residential associations and slums. Activities to incentivise compliance with road rules such as traffic signal, seatbelts, helmets and stop line programmes are also a part of Zero Accident Day campaign.

Speaking on the occasion, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “At IIT Madras, we believe in providing solutions to everyday problems that plague our society. Road safety is matter of vital importance, given its long-term implications on the socio-economic status of accident victims. Bringing down road crash fatalities is a crucial step in increasing the standard of living in our Country. We are hopeful that this initiative by CoERS, IIT Madras and GCTP will yield positive results by enabling the required mind set change among the general public. We need more such awareness programmes to sensitise road users on safe driving practices.”

 Addressing the inaugural programme, Thiru Alby John Varghese, IAS, Managing Director, Metropolitan Transport Corporation (Chennai) Limited, said, “Zero accident day is an innovative concept where we are creating awareness on different subjects on different days. MTC buses play a large role in the movement of vehicles in our city. Our bus drivers drive 100s of kilometres in a day and do it under stressful conditions. This training programme as part of the ZAD campaign with IIT Madras will help them better navigate the city’s roads and make them both better drivers and role models for other drivers.”

The MTC Drivers were provided ‘simulator-based training in safe driving concepts, hazard perception, and driving etiquette which will go a long way in improving their ability to drive safely.

Emphasising the necessity of training future drivers, Thiru Sreenivasan Janakiraman, CSR Head, Ford Motor Private Limited, said, “To tap into India’s demographic dividend, it’s very important to take action today to create responsible road users for the future. As an automotive company, we understand that road safety is critical and we are glad to be a part of this initiative to train young drivers and make our roads safer.”

Commending this IIT Madras initiative, Thiru R Sudhakar, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police, Greater Chennai Traffic Police, said, “Every city across the world witnesses accidents. Our aim has always been to bring down road accidents and fatalities and make Chennai a zero-accident city, even if it is for one day. We’re happy to partner with CoERS and IIT Madras to make this happen. Normally when someone says Zero, there is a negative image attached to it. We wanted to change this, and give zero a positive changeover. This ZAD campaign is for 20 days with different stakeholders with a unique theme for each day to create maximum awareness and impact.“

Elaborating on the programme, Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Head, CoERS and RBG Labs, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras, who is coordinating this initiative, said, “Road users need to be continuously refreshed on knowledge of road rules, proper driving etiquette, violations, and negligent driving behaviour that cause road safety hazards to people, infrastructure, and vehicles. Enforcement could provide interventions only to a limited extent to maintain the safety of all road users. This vision Zero Accidents in Chennai is within reach but can only become a reality if all of us undergo a behavioural and mindset change to educate ourselves to be responsible road users.”

This entire month of the Zero Accident Day (ZAD) campaign by GCTP will be about road safety education and awareness for all road users in Chennai at all age levels. Several activities at the community level, schools, colleges, IT parks are planned in Chennai as an endeavour towards making Chennai roads safe.