The document outlines a list of actions to improve road safety in Cochin and make it accident free. It proposes improvements like providing better street lighting, fixing potholes quickly, ensuring proper drainage to prevent water logging, enforcing speed limits, restricting unlicensed and drunken driving, increasing safety measures for buses and autos, promoting high visibility clothing and vehicles, improving pedestrian infrastructure and enforcing rules to protect pedestrians. The overall goal is to make necessary infrastructure improvements, enforce traffic rules strictly and increase road safety awareness among the public.

1. List of actions to be taken for ACCIDENT FREE COCHIN.
 Day light like lighting shall be provided on all important and busy roads. For
example, street lighting is yet to be provided on the most important International
Container Transhipment Terminal Road (ICTT Road) popularly known as Container
Road.
 Temporary medians created using tar drums on approach roads of Edappally
Railway overbridge shall be replaced using standard plastic medians of red colour
 Immediate rectification of potholes as soon as they are formed will help to save many
lives. Mobile App or Call centre based systems shall be made operational by NHAI to
address potholes, as is being done by PWD. NHAI shall implement similar systems
and the system shall be working round the clock.
 Engineers of PWD/NHAI/Local Bodies shall be held responsible for the upkeep of
roads to ensure that they are pothole-free on an 24x365 basis.
 Water clogging on some parts of the ICTT road near Cheranellore Junction is
resulting in water splash causing accident risk, especially for those coming on the
other side of the road. It is unresolved, even after few years since reporting to
authorities. It has to be resolved immediately
 Level of sub roads shall be made equal to the main road at junctions. This will aid
easy and risk free entry to main road and help to avoid accidents
 Bell mouths shall be available for all sub roads to ensure visibility.
 Competitive running of private buses to be curbed.

2.  Honking by buses shall be strictly prohibited.
 Speed limit enforcement for two wheel vehicles to be enforced strongly.
 Driving by minors and licence less youngsters shall be highly penalised and
punished.
 Drunken driving to be checked continuously at important and vulnerable locations.
 Driving under the influence of drugs to be curbed.
 Increase the minimum age for drivers of private bus and school buses within city
limits to ensure that immature youngsters don't drive private/school buses.
 The rear side of back engine auto rickshaws is almost open. It shall be covered with
iron grills to reduce seriousness of injuries, in case of an accident.
 Simple seatbelts shall be provided for the passengers on all auto rickshaws.
 The default colour of auto rickshaws shall be changed to yellow.
 The back engine auto rickshaws account for less than 2% of all vehicles in the city.
But they make 98% of the noise on the road. The manufacturers of such vehicles
shall be asked to redesign the engine to reduce moice. Or such auto rickshaws shall
not be permitted to run, in cities at least
 Electric vehicles do not have voice at all. That is also dangerous as it will increase
accident risk as pedestrians may not know, even if they have reached so close to
them, just behind them and result in accidents when the people suddenly try to cross
the road or make a movement on the road, without knowing the presence of the
electric vehicle so close to them. Low floor buses also have this problem. Creation of
artificial slight beep like noise to alert the pedestrians is a probable solution.
 Promote the use of white vehicles buy awareness as they have increased visibility
and reduced crash risk.
 Discourage black vehicles by public awareness about higher crash risk of black
vehicles and it's high fuel consumption for air conditioning system because of the
heat absorption characteristic of black colour.
 Promote white/bright dress for children and public for increased visibility on road and
less accident risk.
 Bright colour shall be promoted in educational institutions for schools uniforms to
increase visibility and thereby reduce accident risk.

3.  Encourage bright coloured cycles and cycles with fluorescent paints.
 Reflective stickers shall be affixed on all black/dull coloured cycles in the city.
 Reflective overcoats shall be provided for traffic police/wardens for their safety.
 Safety awareness shall start from childhood. For example, if safety awareness is
imparted at the age of 5 or 6, safety will be a habit.
 Mass safety awareness shall be conducted for public through print / visual media.
Services of Public relations Department shall be availed for the purpose.
 Provide footpaths on both sides of all important roads and ensure that pedestrians
use it without fail.
 Encourage and teach pedestrians to walk on right side of the roads with no footpath.
 Enforce stoppage of vehicles at zebra crossing and stop markings near signals for
safer road crossing for pedestrians.
 A pedestrian centric culture to be developed by educating drivers to respect
pedestrians, old aged people and weaker sections of the society including the
underprivileged, on the road.
 Ensure that speeding vehicles, especially buses, maintain minimum distance from
vehicle in front. Violation of the same shall be firmly dealt with.
 Ensure Free left at important junctions.
 System of keeping yellow signals blinking during nights and holidays to be stopped
completely at important and busy junctions. Instead, short intervals fir signal
switching to be introduced on nights and holidays.
 Visual advertisements involving dangerous stunts are likely to mislead young minds.
Hence such advertisements shall be strictly prohibited by law to prevent accidents in
future.
 Most drivers and riders, especially bus drivers do not respect pedestrians on the
road. At signals, they park vehicle over the zebra crossing, completely obstructing
road crossing opportunity for pedestrians during red signal. Private buses positions
the buses so close to the vehicle in front to ensure that nobody cross the road in front
of them so that they can move forward quickly once the green signal is switched on.
Kaloor Junction is an excellent example for this type of practises. These unhealthy
and unethical practices are to be prohibited completely for sure to help pedestrians.
Prepared By : Er. C J Johnson MIE, Assistant General Manager (IT), FACT Limited, Kochi.
( An Engineer by profession and a dedicated road safety volunteer for more than two decades)
Mobile : 94 95 76 45 90 , 88 48 96 30 98 | E-Mail : CJJINDIA@gmail.com
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