Traffic rules reduced fatalities this year: Chennai police

Chennai: Effective enforcement by the City Traffic police has resulted in reduction of fatal accidents in the city for the first two months this year compared to last year during the same period.

Police said 191 persons have died in road accidents in the city until February this year. This is 26 less than the number of fatalities during the same period last year. “In January 2017, 114 were killed in road accidents while in February, 103 persons were killed. In 2018, 103 persons were killed in January and 88 persons in February,” a senior police officer said.

 This, police officials said is possible due to the effective traffic enforcement practices adopted by the City police from the beginning of this year. For instance, along Ennore highway which sees heavy container traffic, separate lanes were allotted for container trucks and the roads were barricaded from Ennore east point until Form 13 and from MFL junction until Sathangadu, police said.

 While roads were barricaded on accident-prone roads, barricades erected unnecessarily were identified and removed, police said. “Fifty-six such barricades were identified from across city roads and removed,” a police officer said. A hundred new bus bays were erected exclusively for MTC buses in the bus stops.
 Further, in co-ordination with the Chennai Corporation, garbage trucks were told to not venture onto arterial roads during peak hour traffic and visible markers were erected at accident prone zones, police said.

 “Speed breakers were repainted at 160 locations in the city. Traffic signals were erected and traffic diversions were effected at a few places in the city,” the official added. City police officials said that enforcement will continue and police strive to reduce the fatalities in the coming months.