A view of traffic in Dimapur. (EM Images)
DIMAPUR — Between 2022 and 2024, there has been
a drastic reduction in the number of road-related vehicular accidents in
Dimapur, Chümoukedima, and Niuland.
- Data provided by Dimapur Police on Thursday informed that
the three districts’ cumulative number of accidents in the calendar year 2022
was 557.
- The corresponding figure for 2024 was 110—a reduction of 447
or by 80.25%. In 2023, the total number of accidents was 267.
- Dimapur Police attributed this sharp dip in the number of
accidents to three reasons mainly: road safety awareness campaigns;
installation of traffic lights and appurtenances; and strict enforcement
drives.
- Awareness campaigns
- “With an aim to educate and inculcate in children at a very
young age safe driving habits and traffic laws, schools and colleges were the
primary focus of the awareness campaigns. More than 60 educational institutions
under Dimapur, Chümoukedima, and Niuland were covered by the traffic officers’
and personnel under this programme.
- “This grassroots approach attempts to educate not only the
student community but also indirectly reach out to the parents, guardians, and
general public through them to spread the message of safe driving habits and to
follow traffic laws,” it stated.
- Similar campaigns were conducted for the auto rickshaws and
truck drivers through their respective unions. "Further, churches and
seminar programmes of various public organisations were attended, and lectures
on the importance of road safety and traffic rules and regulations were
delivered.
- “Booklets/pamphlets/leaflets on road safety, traffic laws,
and rules were distributed among the road users during road safety week and
enforcement drives,” it added.
- Traffic lights and
appurtenances
- The district police installed cautionary solar blinker
lights at black spots and accident-prone areas to alert drivers, especially at
night; delineator lights were erected at important junctions to discourage
double/triple piling of vehicles at traffic stops.
