ACTIVITIES
Saving Parrots’ Habitat
This is a totally different mission than road safety but everyone including the birds has the right to ArriveSafe. The city Municipal Corporation had put up high lights that illuminated the area forcing the parrots to flee the area where they had been staying for decades.
Candle Light Vigil
We joined the family of the deceased to mark the 1st anniversary. It’s a very sad scene with the close family members out there with moist eyes. Life goes on for other road users, some of them looking staring as if the same cannot happen to them. Ironically, the round-about still remains as it was one year back though it was pointed out that bad road engineering was an important reason for the crash. Another road user lost his life a few days back at the same place.
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Road Safety Week 2008
ArriveSafe conducted various activities with the Chandigarh Traffic Police and Haryana Police during the Road Safety Week. Banners against drunken driving and unsafe driving were put up at all dhabas (roadside eating joints) and liquor vends in Kurukshetra district of Haryana. Though, we feel there should be a couple of “365 days of safety”. This would set the right trend amongst the road users. Once the existing road users start following the rules, the new ones would automatically follow them.
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Lectures in Schools
We feel the educational institutions should squeeze in some time to educate the students about the importance of road safety. It’s important to inculcate good habits at an early stage. “The curriculum already is stressful and too much for the students”, feel some teachers but regular events can still be held. We are glad that some schools have welcomed this idea and are starting this.
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Collision Course - A UNO BBC Documentary
Harman Singh Sidhu, President of ArriveSafe Society of Chandigarh, who
has been selected as protagonist by UN Global Road Safety Week starting
on the 23rd April 07 is back after visiting Sao Paulo, Brazil & New
Delhi, India. The road safety documentary would be broadcasted in 34 countries
through their National TV channels after being dubbed in the local languages.
The documentary is being produced by Television Trust for the Environment
(tve.org) on behalf of BBC.
The documentary starts with Harman explaining his personal experience
as a Road Traffic Accident (RTA) victim and how he started his campaign
on Road Safety. He was surprised to know that even in Brazil, the road
safety campaigns are mainly taken up by persons who have either lost a
near one or got incapacitated in a RTA.
In these 15 days, he met officials and prominent persons who are related
to Road Safety or are working in departments such as public health, education
& enforcement, road engineering etc. Both these middle income countries
(Brazil & India) lose a substantial part of their GDP because of RTAs
with India losing a lot more than Brazil. Brazil has developed a world
class road infrastructure while India is still in the process of doing
it in patches. It was also felt that the licensing system in India needs
to be improved with officials and public largely blaming poor knowledge
of the drivers as a major reason for the RTAs.
A National Traffic Code should be evolved and implemented. Brazil implemented
National Traffic Code in 1998 and it helped them reduce the RTAs. Interestingly
the drunken driver can refuse taking the breath analyzer test and the
police cannot force him to take the test. Drunken driving is a major cause
of RTAs in both countries. Though in India, occasionally Government officials
talk of the menace of drunken driving, the liquor vends are being brought
closer to the roads prompting the drivers to drink and drive.
As anyone who drives in developed countries knows - traffic management
is now a fine art. But even the basic principles of such management are
seldom passed on or adhered to in poorer countries – well over three
quarters of all accidents globally happen in low and middle income countries
– all too often countries such as India accept road crashes as a
fact of life.
It was emphasized that a separate road safety department or ministry
should be formulated that should co-ordinate amongst the various agencies
related to RTAs. Many felt that these RTAs have to increase as the countries
make economic progress but the accidents should not be a reflection of
the economic growth. The Planning Commission in India has put the social
cost of road accidents at Rs 55,000 crore during 1999-2000, which constitute
about 3% of GDP for the year.
Harman had a very fruitful interaction with the office bearers of NGOs
promoting road safety in Brazil. ArriveSafe would work in close co-ordination
with Brazilian NGOs to spread the message of Road Safety in both the countries.
Projeto Vida Urgente no Palco (Project Urgent Life in the Palco - http://www.vidaurgente.com.br/)
has been started by a lady who lost her son in RTA. As a part of their
activities, they paint a butterfly at the black spot on the road which
has a very positive impact on the road users. The activists also visit
the bars and pubs and prompt people to take breath analyzer test. They
give different color butterflies depending upon the content of alcohol
in their body. It was interesting to see people coming forward to check
their alcohol level. It is a subtle way of spreading the message of road
safety.
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Faces behind the figures: voices of road traffic crash victims and their families
The World Health Organization and the Association for
Safe International Road Travel have jointly developed a book entitled
"Faces behind the figures: voices of road traffic crash victims and
their families", to put a human face on the statistics presented
in the many road safety reports published around the world.
The stories demonstrate the physical, psychological,
emotional and economic devastation that results from road traffic injuries.
These stories deepen our  understanding
of the enormous suffering behind each of the 1.2 million deaths and 50
million injuries every year. Despite the losses experienced, a number
of the affected victims and their families used this tragedy to initiate
activities to promote road safety in their countries and around the world.
We remind readers that the handful of stories in this book represent only
a minuscule fraction of the lives lost, families shattered, and countless
others hurt around the world by this epidemic.
The cries of pain in this book are echoed a million times
a year, over 3 000 times a day. They are a call for action – and
they demand a response. We hope that individuals, organizations and governmental
agencies can use these stories to raise public awareness, capture media
attention and help create a political and social environment that will
not tolerate inaction and will demand road safety improvement.
Harman's story is on page 22 of the publication.
Download
the publication
Road Safety Week 2007
As each year, ArriveSafe enthusiastically celebrated Road Safety Week, held
from 2nd January to 7th January 2007in co-ordination with the Chandigarh
Traffic Police and Ambala Police. The Road Safety Week was marked with
a series of activities.
A software developed by ArriveSafe for testing the theoretical knowledge
of the license seekers' was launched. Lectures and presentations were
given in the colleges.
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World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
ArriveSafe and Chandigarh Traffic Police organised a workshop on road safety rules at Dev Samaj College for Girls, Chandigarh. The workshop was organised to remember road traffic accident victims who lost their lives in various accidents. Traffic rules and regulations tips were given to the audience by harman Singh Sidhu and Amar Manchanda of Traffic Awareness Organisation. We interacted with the students, teahers and the general public present during the awareness campaign.
A silence for 30 seconds was observed to mourn and remember the traffic victims and a painting competition was organised by the Chandigarh Librarians' Association on the occasion.
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