BONGAIGAON, Aug 26 - Now-a-days school students are smart enough to realise the causes of road mishaps from their experience. What they need is some awareness.
Triple-riding on a bike and road race often causes mishap on roads, but for these mishaps drivers of heavy vehicles are held guilty and lynched by mobs which is unfair, Arup Ray, a class VIII student of Sidalsati Higher Secondary School presented this view in his speech at a road safety awareness meeting organised in his school on Friday.
In the meeting, which was organised by the district administration and District Transport Department, Deputy Commissioner Biswajit Pegu elaborated on the causes of mishaps and explained them to the students.
As road mishaps frequently occur in Sidalsati area on National Highway-31, hence the place was selected for the awareness meeting, the Deputy Commissioner said.
District Transport Officer, Bhaskar Jyoti Dutta explained the rules of the road and the latest instruction by the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety.
A total of 1.5 lakh persons had died in road accidents in the nation last year, which occurred after every four minutes. Among the dead, 20 were the teenagers under the age of 14 years, Dutta added.
In a bid to reduce the accident rate up to 10 per cent, the committee has given instructions to all the district road safety councils of the nation.
Accordingly, the Bongaigaon District Road Safety Council, which comprises Deputy Commissioner and District Transport Officer as the president and general secretary respectively, is working on to detect 'black spots' (accident-prone spots) in the district and would take measures after analysing the factors linked to the mishaps, Dutta said.
Inspector of Schools, Bongaigaon, Sadullah Khan inspired the students to use bicycles instead of bikes and scooties to reach their schools as this practice would help them avoid accidents.
Khan also advised the schools to generate road safety awareness among the students as a part of education during assembly hour.
Deputy Commissioner Pegu informed the students that legal action has been started against those bikers who often resort to overspeed and violate rules of the road. Their guardians also would face legal action similar to their wards, he added.
Former president of the School Management Committee, Amrit Bhusan Fauzdar chaired the meeting while the principal of the school, Hitesh Barman gave the welcome address.