MoRTH panel recommends use of GPS to collect data on accidents

NEW DELHI, Feb 21:
An expert committee set up by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has recommended a new format, which includes use of GPS, to collect more precise data on road accidents. The new format will be crucial as the data forms the basis for analysing the cause of accidents, identifying black spots and taking corrective steps to eliminate the flaws.
The recommendations have been accepted by the Centre and have now been forwarded to the states and union territories so that all have a uniform format to record road accidents.
Data on road accidents is compiled by MoRTH.
The panel, formed in November 2016, comprises officials from MoRTH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, state transport and Police Departments and experts from IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kharagpur. Traffic experts said the existing data is highly flawed and many aspects related to road safety remain unreported or underreported. “The current data shows only 10 per cent of casualties are pedestrians. However, our study revealed that 50 per cent of victims of road accidents in Delhi are pedestrians while the figure goes to 65 per cent in Mumbai,” said Geetam Tiwari, an IIT professor, who was a part of the panel.
Kirti Saxena, senior advisor with the Transport Research Wing (TRW) of the MoRTH, said the earlier data recording system does not take into consideration aspects like engineering defects, road surface conditions, over-loading and condition of vehicles. (PTI)

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