In recent times with the growth of the country’s economy propelling, the increase in the number of vehicles has only increased the number of road hazards resulting in lives lost and maimed. The road accidents that were more localised to metro cities and highways earlier are now occurring even in small towns across the country. On the other hand, narrow roads and inferior technology of vehicles were the reasons for most the accidents before but at present the wider roads with safer vehicles but much faster with increased number of vehicles on the roads have instead worsened the scenario. The numbers of road accidents is increasing daily across the country. Along with the country Nagaland is also seeing an increase in the number of road accidents and the number of fatalities have increased exponentially. In a recent programme on road safety awareness at Dimapur the Commissioner of Police provided the figures that were a bit alarming. In 2016 there were 15 deaths caused by roads accidents whereas in 2017 in just 6 months there were already 20 deaths in Dimapur area due to road accidents.
It can be only termed as timely that the Road Safety Awareness Programme which is an initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways; and the Association of State Road Transport Undertakings was launched in December 2016 in the State. It is only natural but unfortunate that people realise the importance of such issues only when they experience and witness firsthand the pain and sorrow caused by the improper use or misuse of aids brought about by science and technology leading to fatal accidents. Nevertheless, such campaigns need to be aggressively pursued to ensure a wider audience and impact. Before the coming of satellite television in the country, the state owned Doordarshan regularly use to air small episodes of dos and don’ts while one is driving. A popular tyre manufacturer also once ran a campaign in print media across the country with driving etiquettes and safety awareness for better driving experience. At present there are actually no dearth for media platforms with the numerous channels both in TV and radio too. The Print Media is also still going strong and the latest addition is Social Media and other instant multimedia messaging services. The government agencies can in fact choose to use any of these according to the town, district or region it wants to target.
When it comes to road safety a diverse approach is required that has many stakeholders starting from the government and its agencies. The agencies can be for planning; infrastructural development and maintenance; and law enforcement for roads, vehicles and drivers. Then it is followed by the users who actually commute on the roads from the pedestrians to the drivers. Therefore, it is almost a cliché but thinking out of the box is a necessity in such a scenario. These agencies also should be made target groups if better and safer roads are the objectives for the near future. Moreover for the users or commuters, target groups in terms of geography will have lesser impact when compared to target groups based on demography as. The rising number of young drivers on the streets and an increasing number of commuters who are school and college going youth will be one of the most important groups to target for the awareness programmes to succeed. Every type of media has to be utilised with innovative methods to attract and convey the message to its targeted group. As seen across the world over, a quick witty innovative message always works better to grab the attention. Catch ‘em young and you have civilised drivers and commuters on your streets in a few years time.
