IIT-Madras researchers developing data-driven plans to enhance road safety in Tamil Nadu

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 today (12) by the Center of Excellence for Human Factors and Safety Science @ RBG Labs, IIT Madras, in coordination with the National Health Mission. Various stakeholders involved in road safety include the Police, Health, Transport, Road owning agencies, Education, Rural Development, and Local Self Government, among others, participated in the workshop held at IIT Madras Research Park.

"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," reads a press release issued by IIT-M. 

Conveying his message for the workshop, Thiru Ma. Subramanian, Minister for Health, Medical Education and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, said, “This workshop is the first of many such design-thinking 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.”

Key outcomes

1. Clear long term policies and strategies for moving towards an ‘accident-free Tamil Nadu’
2. Short term strategies to improve road safety and minimize road traffic accidents during the next 3 months (November 2021 to January 2022)
3. Action Points and Key Performance Indicators for each of the Stakeholder Departments, including Health, Police, Road owning agencies, Transport, Education and Local Bodies.
4. Modalities for sharing and utilizing the data available with Stakeholder departments for collective action in ensuring road safety. For example, Grid Analysis data available with Health Departments shall be used for enforcement, preventive action awareness creation, among others, by the stakeholder departments concerned.

Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Faculty In-Charge, Center of Excellence for Human Factors and Safety Science @ RBG Labs, IIT Madras, who is coordinating this workshop, said, “Avoiding accidents and fatalities in accidents is an essential requirement to be a developed nation. Roads are shared assets and the safety on them is a collective responsibility of all the stakeholders.”

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. 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 short-term and long-term action plan for improving road safety in the State.