Vijayawada: Facebook campaign on Road Safety launched in Vijayawada

Vijayawada: Massive awareness programmes on road safety are launched including on social media to bring the safety point of view to the wider public, said Additional Transport Commissioner SAV Prasad Rao while participating as chief guest in the valedictory meeting on the Road Safety Month celebrations here on Wednesday.

He inaugurated the Facebook campaign on road safety started by the Krishna District Transport Department and hoisted a balloon atop the DTC office.

Addressing the gathering, the Additional Transport Commissioner said that efforts are on to decrease the number of accidents by 10 to 15 per cent by coordinating with the voluntary service organisations.

He said that at least 8,000 persons are dying in road accidents in the State every year. However, due to the low traffic during the pandemic last year, the death rate has come down to 7,000.

Everyone should follow the traffic rules, he asserted appealing to the parents not to allow the minor children to drive the vehicles. More than 71 per cent of the accidents in the country are occurring due to high speed driving, he pointed out. Five lakh accidents are taking place in the country ever year killing one and half lakh people. Unfortunately, about three lakh people are becoming physically handicapped due to accidents.

Deputy Transport Commissioner M Purendra said that the national road safety month was celebrated successfully from January 18 to February 17.

The department conducted awareness programmes in various colleges on road safety. As part of the usage of social media to bring awareness among people on road safety, the department opened a Facebook account.

The DTC appealed to the people to put on helmets while riding two wheelers and seat belts while driving the four-wheelers.

RTOs K Ramprasad, A Vijayasarathi, MVIs G Sanjiva Kumar, KR Ravi Kumar, Narayana Swamy, administrative officer Ch Srinivasa Rao, Transport employees' association zonal president M Rajababu, the staff, the trainee drivers and others participated.