KRSF initiates road safety campaign in Jammu and Kashmir

The Kashmir Road Safety Foundation(KRSF), an NGO, has initiated a club to train Kashmiri students about traffic management. The KRSF has been spreading awareness in the valley for the last three years.

The main objective of this organization is to generate awareness among the common people about traffic and road safety rules.

According to the founder of KRSF, Nasir Ali Khan, so far the club has distributed 3000 'on the spot appreciation certificates' in collaboration with the Regional Transport Office (RTO) to drivers for following road safety rules.

"We have begun awareness programs in schools and colleges. In several education institutes, the students are not allowed without wearing helmets or other safety gear," said Khan.

According to a recent NDTV report, one serious road accident in the country occurs every minute and 16 die on Indian roads every hour. 1214 road crashes occur every day in India. Two wheelers account for 25 percent of total road crash deaths. 20 children under the age of 14 die every day due to road crashes in in the country. 377 people die every day, equivalent to a jumbo jet crashing every day. Two people die every hour in Uttar Pradesh - State with maximum number of road crash deaths. Tamil Nadu is the state with the maximum number of road crash injuries.

A recent Daily Excelsior report said that Jammu and Kashmir witnesses over 5800 accidents ever year, with 919 persons having lost lives and 8400 sustained injuries in 2015.

Fourteen out of 22 districts of the state have continued to show an increase in the number of accidents, thereby putting a question mark on functioning of road safety committees appointed by the state government, the local daily had said then.

According to official data, a total of 5867 road accidents took place in Jammu and Kashmir in 2014 and 5850 in 2015.

According to The Tribune, 665 persons were killed in over 4,000 road accidents were reported from across the state till the end of September 2016. Nearly 6,000 persons were also injured in the accidents, among which 511 proved to be fatal.