IIT-Madras move to make roads safer – Times of India

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology-Madras researchers are developing data-driven strategies to enhance road safety in Tamil Nadu. Towards this, a one-day workshop on developing an action plan was organized on Wednesday by Centre of Excellence for Human Factors and Safety Science at RBG Labs, IIT Madras, in coordination with the National Health Mission.
Various stakeholders involved in road safety including police, the departments of health, transport, education, rural development and lcal self-government among others, participated in the workshop.
The outcomes of this workshop will be used to help a focused action plan and be used as a policy advisory to help reduce road accidents and fatalities in Tamil Nadu.
Conveying his message for the workshop, Ma Subramanian, minister for health, medical education and family welfare said, “This workshop is the first of many such designthinking based strategizing workshops for road safety. This coordinated knowledge sharing session among all the road safety stakeholders in Tamil Nadu will be a pathway to continuously evolve successful road safety policies in the State.”
In 2020, Tamil Nadu became the first state in India and globally, the only administered territory to have achieved a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target of reducing deaths due to road accidents by 50 per cent. However, there has been a steady increase in the number of road fatalities in 2021, an official release said.
To curb the seasonal peak traffic crashes in the fourth quarter of 2021, a strategic team of TN stakeholders involved in road safety were identified to prepare a strategic shortterm and long-term action plan for improving road safety in the State.