Wanaparthy police’s novel idea to curb accidents

Police conduct awareness campaign for villagers living along NH

Villagers living along the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway in Wanaparthy district are host to uniformed guests these days. Police have been conducting a special awareness drive for villagers to save them from freak road accidents.

With mass communication still a pipe dream for people living in rural areas, police here have decided to reach out to residents in person, since these people are most vulnerable to road accidents on the highway.

Sharing details on how many people from their villages died in road accidents, the main reason and how it can be prevented, police hope to spread awareness in the form of a “subtle fear”.

“Our intention is positive as more awareness always results in more compliance. If people living here can be made to understand the gravity of the situation, many lives can be saved in the coming years,” said Wanaparthy Superintendent of Police Apoorva Rao.

Speaking to The Hindu, Ms. Rao, who is also the in-charge SP of Jogulamba-Gadwal district, said that there are nine villages along the national highway and most of the people, who lost their lives in accidents, were from these villages. “Villagers here are more vulnerable to accidents. Educating them is a major task,” she said, adding that 46% of road accidents reported in the district occurred on the national highway, and 40% of victims were two-wheeler riders.

On Friday, Ms. Rao along with her team visited Rangapur village in Pebbair mandal and conducted an awareness campaign by revealing accident details involving people from their village.

“We explained to them in detail on how 21 people from their village were killed in road accidents in the past three years. And a majority of them died after ramming recklessly-parked tractors,” she said.

There is a sand reach near the village and many park tractors without any concern for road-users, which must be curbed forthwith, the officer said, adding that apart from the awareness campaign, they had conducted an insurance drive and affixed reflective stickers to tractors.

She said that earlier this month, a techie, Kasdire Ashok (24), from Ayyavaripally, was killed when his bike rammed a stationary tractor in the village. Ashok, who worked for a software company in Bengaluru, came to his native place to attend the annual Jatara (temple festival).

“We map the black spots, drill down the details and explain them to villagers to prevent accidents,” Ms. Rao added.