Diageo & IRTE Road to Safety programme trains Uttarakhand Police

Diageo & IRTE Road to Safety programme trains Uttarakhand Police

2 Aug 2018

Diageo India’s four-year-old Road to Safety partnership with the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) marked a new milestone in April with the launch of a capacity building program for the Uttarakhand Police.

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Aimed at achieving higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness, the programme provides training to traffic police and transport officers in road accident investigation and traffic management.

Ashok Kumar, Additional Inspector General of Police (ADG) Law and Order, Uttarakhand, inaugurated the programme in Dehradun in the presence of IRTE President Dr. Rohit Baluja. Ms. Nivedita Kukreti, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Dehradun; Pushpak Jyoti, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Garhwal division; Kewal Khurana, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) – Traffic and Lokeshwar Singh, Superintendent of Police (SP) – Traffic, Dehradun graced the occasion.

With over 1, 45,000 fatalities a year, India accounts for 12.5% of global road accidents, with 1 road accident occurring every four minutes. In 2015 alone, 72% victims in road mishaps were in the age group of 15-44 years. It is estimated that 1.5% of road traffic accidents and 4.6% of fatalities are attributable to drunken driving. According to data by the Police Headquarters Uttarakhand, in 2017, the state reported over 940 fatalities and over 1600 serious injuries due to road accidents. Of these, fatalities reported in Dehradun were over 140 and injuries resulting due to road accidents were over 250.

Abanti Sankaranarayanan, Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs Officer, Diageo India, said “The Diageo ‘Road to Safety’ initiative aims to create the necessary impact to address the abysmal state of road safety in our country. By collaborating with the Uttarakhand Police and IRTE, we aim to take this programme to greater heights and encourage more people to become champions of road safety. 

Dr. Rohit Baluja, President, Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), said “IRTE is committed to building a right foundation to address the issues of road safety and traffic management in India. It is indeed a pleasure to collaborate with the Uttarakhand Police and Diageo India. I would like to acknowledge and congratulate them for initiating a capacity building programme for the state’s police force.”

The Diageo-IRTE ‘Road to Safety’ programme aims to provide capacity building training to traffic police officials and educate commercial drivers such as truckers and bus drivers, and university students on the dangers of drunken driving. Each programme is conducted by an expert panel of faculty of the IRTE. The deliberations include causes and consequences of road accidents, rules of road regulations and understanding traffic control devices.

Since 2014, the programme has trained over 4,000 traffic officials in road safety capacity-building, along with 6,000 commercial vehicle drivers and more than 5,000 university students in 60-plus cities in 17 states.

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