Road safety vehicles of good use: Vijayawada police commissioner Goutam Sawang

VIJAYAWADA: Vijayawada police commissioner D. Goutam Sawang has claimed that they were able to reduce deaths due to accidents with the help of the newly introduced road safety vehicles in the city. Speaking at a programme to distribute life-saving kits to the 11 road safety vehicles, he said 23 per cent of the accident deaths have be-en reduced in the months of April and May in the city when compared to the previous year.

He said the 11 road safety vehicles have attended to 78 accident spots and shifted 63 persons to hospitals without waiting for the ambulance to come. He observed that the crucial golden hour to shift the accident victims to hospitals was saved with the help of these vehicles. “Identifying the role that these vehicles are playing, we have given training to 75 police personal who were delivering duties on these vehicles with basic life support techniques,” he said.

Now with the introduction of stretchers and first aid kits on these road safety vehicles will act as primary ambulances as well, said Mr Sawang. The road safety vehicles are positioned on NH-16, NH-65 and NH-30 where more number of accidents are taking place, he said. In the year 2016, as many as 63 deaths occurred in 62 accidents whereas in 2017 the number of deaths reported in road accidents was reduced to 48 in 63 accidents, said Mr Sawang.

“Though the accident rate was more or less same as last year, we were able to save more lives this year,” he said and added that this is the lowest number of deaths reported since 2011 in the months of April and May which are said to be the deadliest months when it comes to road accidents.