Tirupati: ‘Focus on raising awareness on Good Samaritan’

Tirupati : District Collector K Venkataramana Reddy directed the officials to focus on increasing awareness about ‘Good Samaritans’ scheme to save those injured in road accidents by taking them to the hospital within the golden hour. The Central government’s scheme will present an incentive of Rs 5,000 to the Good Samaritans, who save the lives of road accident victims by shifting them to hospital.

He chaired the road safety committee meeting at the Collectorate here on Wednesday and said that though the number of road accidents have come down when compared to the previous year in the district, there was no fall in the percentage of death toll.

The role of good Samaritans plays a crucial role in bringing down the death toll. In view of this, awareness programmes in large scale should be held on the Good Samaritan scheme.

Further, if police, health department and NIC could work in coordination and upload the details of injured persons in accidents in iRAD app, they can get immediate treatment soon after reaching the hospital so that their lives can be saved, the Collector explained.

Compared to the past the black spots are not there on roads now, rash driving is leading to several accidents, he observed. Steps should be taken to prevent rash driving and warning signs on the highways should be set up indicating the road safety rules and the dangerous points.

The Collector suggested that it should be ensured that the prescribed time for driving on ghat road between Tirupati and Tirumala be followed by everyone. It was noticed that several vehicles including RTC buses are coming in the opposite direction on Srinivasa Sethu in Tirupati should be prevented. The Collector also asked the officials to take steps to set up signal free junction at Tirupati central bus station with the cooperation of IIT. During the meeting, the Collector and other officials released posters and other booklets meant for road safety awareness.

District transport officer and road safety committee convenor K Seetha Rami Reddy, State road safety committee member Sunil Chakravarthy, Traffic DSP Narasappa, R&B EE Srinivasulu, NH DE Nagaraju, Municipal Corporation SE Mohan, town planning officer Mohan, DM&HO Dr U Sreehari, DPM Srinivasa Rao, Ruia hospital superintendent Dr G Ravi Prabhu and others attended the meeting.