Mangalore: People urged to follow traffic rules as road safety week begins
Pics: Spoorthi Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (BG)
Mangalore, Jan 21: The 25th National Road Safety Week jointly organized by the district administration, Regional Transport Authority (RTA) and the police department was inaugurated by Ananthakrishna, chairman, Karnataka Bank at Town Hall here on Tuesday January 21.
MLA J R Lobo was the chief guest. IGP Pratap Reddy, KCCI president Mohammed Ameen, SP Shanthanu Sinha, Canara bus owners' association president Rajavarma Ballal, DCP Jagadish and RTO Afzal Ahmad Khan were also present on the dais.
Speaking after the inauguration, Ananthakrishna said, "We must create road safety awareness during this safety week and then implement and continue the same in the coming days. We must follow traffic regulations strictly so that there would be no need for safety week programmes in future."
He further said, "When it comes to the question of road safety, there are three main aspects - quality of roads, quality of vehicles and adherence to traffic rules. It is the duty of the government to ensure that the roads are clean and safe. RTO and individuals must ensure that vehicles are maintained at optimum condition. Traffic police as well as people must take care that rules are followed strictly. Only if these three aspects go hand in hand will the road safety awareness week be successful.
"Noise pollution is another import factor affecting road safety. The high levels of sound emitted by the horns of the vehicles, especially buses, are creating a lot of noise pollution. The sharp sound of bus conductor's whistle is also harmful for passengers. Drivers and bus conductors must see to it that noise pollution is minimum," he said, conveying his best wished to the event.
Addressing the gathering, J R Lobo said, "We ourselves are the main reasons for the increase in the number of road accidents. In some cases, we suffer because of mistakes committed by others. We always compare the transport system of foreign countries to that of ours. When we go there, we follow their traffic rules strictly, but here we do not.
"Officials and people are the two faces of the same coin. Road safety is possible if both of them join hands. Violation of traffic rules is another reason for the increase in number of accidents, which must be controlled in the coming days," he said.
Students from various schools of the city also took part enthusiastically in this event.
The week-long road safety programme will culminate on January 27.