Soon, a system to monitor road accidents

Chennai: A system to monitor road accidents is currently being tested by the Tamil Nadu Road Sector Project (TNRSP) wing, which will be operational by the second week of December. The Road Accident Data Monitoring System (RADMS) is part of the road safety component of the TNRSP, which is financed by a loan from the World Bank.

"The system will be a web-based application and all accidents which have been recorded by the 10,000-odd traffic police stations in the state will be uploaded to the database and then geo-referenced on a map," said R. Thiagarajan, Project Director, TNRSP. The Geographic Information System-based application will help map all information contained in the Accident Report Form (ARF), which is filled by the traffic police officer at the scene of the accident, reports The Hindu.

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Using the data, the initiative seeks to analyse aspects such as identifying junctions where a cluster of accidents are reported, the time of the day when the maximum number of accidents takes place in a particular zone and modifying traffic flow for those few hours, and isolating the most common reason for fatal accidents in different localities.

According to Thiagarajan, traffic flow in 'black spots' where the highest number of fatal accidents are reported will be modified to mitigate the number of fatalities. Once the system is launched, hand-held devices fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) and a camera would be provided to traffic cops. The ARF will be accessible only after the GPS coordinates of an accident have been obtained and can be digitally created using the device.

The RADMS central database will function from the state traffic police cell and an inter-departmental mechanism involving the State Highways, Transport Department and the Traffic Police is being evolved to meet the operational requirements.