Visakhapatnam: In an effort to bring down road accidents in the city, the police are educating auto rickshaw drivers across the city on the precautions to be taken to reduce road accidents, the need for defensive driving along with the importance of insurance and saving income.

Along with RTC buses, more people prefer auto rickshaws to reach their destinations on a daily basis. Instilling discipline among auto drivers, the traffic police encouraged the drivers to be cautious while driving and urged them to follow traffic rules to avoid accidents.

Approximately, 4,200 auto rickshaw drivers in Visakhapatnam city have been identified and divided into 16 batches for training. Covering various topics, they are being trained batch-wise.

A one-day training programme was organised for the 15th batch of auto rickshaw drivers by City Police Commissioner Shankhabrata Bagchi. During the training programme, the City Police Commissioner explained the causes of accidents recorded in the city’s CCTV footage and described the accident scenes to the auto rickshaw drivers, encouraging them to drive responsibly.

Speaking on the occasion, the City Police Commissioner assured that soon, two pairs of uniforms with badge names would be provided to the auto drivers in the city.

Keeping the auto rickshaw drivers’ health in view, the CP said that free medical tests will be conducted for them at the earliest. There should be a good relationship between the police and the auto rickshaw drivers, he added.

The drivers, who participated in the training programme, were distributed T-shirts and caps as prizes.

Trainers, 250 autorickshaw drivers, traffic officials and staff participated in the programme.