Himachal to study causes of road accidents
By IANSWednesday, January 27, 2010
SHIMLA - The Himachal Pradesh government Wednesday decided to constitute a committee to find out the causes of road accidents in the state, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said.
“We (the cabinet) today (Wednesday) decided to set up a committee to know the major reasons for road accidents in the state. The panel would carry out in-depth studies of all the major accidents occurred recently across the state,” Dhumal told reporters here.
The committee, he said, would submit its report within two weeks.
“It has been also decided to constitute a permanent road accident committee under the chairmanship of an SDM (sub-divisional magistrate) in each subdivision to know the reasons for the accident,” the chief minister added.
The government is also considering installation of global positioning system (GPS) in state-run and private buses to reduce the rate of accidents.
According to police records, rash driving, overloading, untrained drivers, unfit buses and poor roads have been among the factors that killed over 8,000 people in road accidents in the past 10 years in the state.
The number of deaths in road accidents was at an all-time high in 2007 when 979 people lost their lives in 2,955 accidents. As many as 581 people were killed in road accidents in 2008.
