Diageo India collaborates with Uttarakhand Traffic Police and Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) for Road to Safety programme in Udham Singh Nagar

29 Dec 2018 | Press release

Download PDF

Initiative will help build capacity by training 50 Uttarakhand Police officers

image-1.jpg

Dehradun, December 29, 2018: Diageo India, today announced the launch of its Road Safety Capacity Building programme for the Uttarakhand Police together with the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE). The programme was inaugurated in the august presence of Mr Puran Singh Rawat, Indian Police Service, IG Kumaon Range, Udham Singh Nagar; Mr. Krishan Kumar, Senior Superintendent of Police, Udham Singh Nagar; Dr. Neeraj Khairwal, District Magistrate, Udham Singh Nagar; Mrs. Kamlesh Upadhyay, Addl. S P Crime; Dr. Jagdish Chand Addl. SP, Kashipur; Mr. Swatantra Kumar Singh, Addl. SP Rudrapur and Dr. Rohit Baluja, President, Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE).

As per the World Health Organisation’s ’Global status report on road safety  2018, road accidents are a leading cause of deaths globally, claiming 1.35 million lives every year. According to industry reports, India accounts for 12.5% (over 1,45,000 fatalities a year) of global road accidents, with 1 road accident occurring every four minutes. Alarmingly, 72% victims involved in such road mishaps are between the age groups of 15-44 years with speeding, reckless driving and driving under the influence of alcohol being the top reasons accounting for 1.5% of road traffic accidents and 4.6% of fatalities. In 2017, Uttarakhand reported over 1600 road accidents and over 940 fatalities according to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.   

Aimed at achieving higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness, the two programme during December 29-30, 2018 in Udham Singh Nagar, will provide capacity building training to traffic police and transport officers in road accident investigation and traffic management. The training will include modules on ‘Codes & Standards of Traffic Control Devices’, ‘Forensic Science in Road Accident Investigation’, ‘Road Traffic Legislations (including newly legislated Motor Vehicles Driving Regulations)’ and ‘Applications of Traffic Engineering’.

Commenting on the initiative, Abanti Sankaranarayanan, Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs Officer, Diageo India, said “The Diageo India ‘Road to Safety’ initiative aims to create the necessary impact to address the abysmal state of road safety in our country. Our vision is to be a catalyst in the transformation of Road Safety in India, working with enforcement, Central & State Governments, not-for-profit organisations and media. By collaborating with the Uttarakhand Police and IRTE, we aim to take this programme to greater heights and create a national movement around road safety.”

Dr. Rohit Baluja, President, Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), said “The Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) is the Centre of Excellence for Road Safety for South East Asia, committed to support the development of need-based training programmes for the police across regions. In our region, the traffic police by default is made responsible for all issues of traffic management which includes traffic engineering, road safety education in addition to their primary responsibilities of enforcement and accident investigation. There is therefore the need of training our traffic police on the subjects of traffic control and traffic engineering and the Road Authorities about our Road Legislations. I would like to compliment the Uttarakhand Police for bringing together the traffic police officers and the road authorities for this two day capacity building initiative. We are confident that with a sustained effort on training the police, we will soon see a reduction in road traffic accidents and an improved efficiency of traffic operation in the District of Udham Singh Nagar. The unflagging support of Diageo India Ltd towards supporting this endeavour needs to be complimented.”

In its fourth year, Diageo India and IRTE have been successfully running their ‘Road to Safety’ initiative to provide capacity building training to traffic police officials and educating commercial drivers such as truckers and bus drivers and university students on the dangers of drinking and driving. Till date the programme has covered 18 states and over 64 cities and trained over 5,700 traffic officials in road safety capacity-building programme, educated 6,000 commercial vehicle drivers and over 5,500 university students.

For more updates, please follow #RoadToSafety.