Bhubaneswar: Contrary to expectations that the highway patrol system will increase road safety compliance and minimize the deaths of accidents, fail to achieve the desired results.
The failure of this initiative was evident from a series of letters sent by the Department of Transportation to the Odisha Police to improve the performance of the highway patrol system launched by the Head of Minister of Naveen Patnaik at 1, 2021.
The purpose of this initiative is to break the cross-braced whip and shift the accident victim to the nearest hospital.
Highway Patrol has been introduced to 20 mini stretches covering 11 districts.
But deaths have increased substantially in most districts except Ganjam and Puri.
“Therefore, steps might be taken to intensify enforcement by the highway patrol team for death reductions,” read the letter sent by trade and transportation secretary Madan Sudan Padhi told the Director General of Police Abhay on Thursday.
It has been on May 8 highlight the government’s displeasure about the performance of the highway patrol team.
The Department of Transportation has written three letters to DGP in the last three months with demand to ensure better results by the highway patrol enforcement team.
According to statistics, the highway patrol team sentenced 137 traffic violators in February 242 in March 162 in April (all in 19 mini stretches) and 136 violators in 20 mini stretches in May.
At least 85 accidents were reported in 19 stretches in February, 124 accidents in March, 168 in April and 85 road accidents at 20 stretches in May.
The highway patrol team shifted 57 victims of injured accidents to hospitals in February, 98 victims in March, 114 in April and 66 were injured in May.
The highway patrol unit staff must intensify law enforcement activities because their appearance is reviewed by the Supreme Court Committee on road safety.
The committee has expressed its displeasure to us for the increasing number of accident deaths, a transportation official said.
The number of deaths in the state accident increased to 1,877 between January and April this year from 1,471 during the appropriate months of 2020, taking a disturbing 27.6% increase.
The government has also asked DGP to begin the procurement process and installation of speed laser weapons in highway patrol vehicles to detect excessive vehicles.
At present, only an interceptor vehicle is equipped with a speed laser weapon.