Noida traffic cops initiate awareness drive for rear seatbelts

Noida: Following instructions from the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH), the Noida traffic police initiated intensive awareness drives to ensure that more people start wearing rear seatbelts in their four-wheelers

Noida: Following instructions from the Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH), the Noida traffic police initiated intensive awareness drives to ensure that more people start wearing rear seatbelts in their four-wheelers.

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The instructions come after the death of business tycoon Cyrus Mistry in a road crash last week where both the passengers of the rear seat died.

“We are circulating videos, printed pamphlets and also making announcements through the integrated traffic management system (ITMS). Our aim is to generate awareness to begin with, because as of now there is almost no vehicle on the road where rear passengers use seatbelts,” said Ganesh Prasad Saha, deputy commissioner of police (traffic).

Police said that enforcement through challans will not be done for the time being.

Noida traffic police started the awareness campaign on Wednesday with the lighting of a torch. The ‘helmet man of India’, Raghvendra Kumar, who took part in the campaign, spoke to commuters and requested passengers sitting on the rear seats to wear seatbelts.

Police said that most of the campaign will be led by school students. There will be activities, demo sessions at traffic parks, movies and presentations on how the probability of an accident reduces greatly if traffic rules are followed.

“Children are usually more sensitive and are able to drive their parents and others into following rules. They understand quickly and are more willing to follow rules. We will scientifically explain in simple ways how accidents happen and how fatalities can be reduced if people follow traffic rules,” said DCP Saha.

“In addition, we will also inform students about how and what instruments are being used for monitoring traffic offences and how repeated challans project a ‘bad image’ of people”, DCP Saha said.

Additionally, traffic officials will also increase their social media presence and respond to traffic related complaints on social media platforms in real time. Officials said that they will make sure that more traffic personnel have reachable WhatsApp numbers and are easily available to people. Traffic officials will speak directly and note complaints so that they can reach the spot and reduce any bottlenecks at the earliest, officials added.

“We will gather information through crowdsourcing. We have over 100,000 followers on Twitter and will try to increase our digital volunteers from among residents who will be our eyes on the roads,” DCP Saha added.