First-aid training and learning of life saving techniques will become mandatory for heavy commercial vehicle drivers from July 2016 to get a driving license (DL) or while getting it renewed in the country.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in association with the International Road Federation and Automobile Association of Upper India are jointly organising this heavy vehicle driver training programme starting from Delhi and NCR Drivers, a statement said.
"During the programme, 10,000 drivers of heavy vehicles will be trained initially in first aid, basic life support and rescue systems," Road Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chhibber said at the nationwide launch of the programme here.
"Untrained people are often frightened to touch casualties - but early intervention can save lives or decrease the impact of injuries, leading to quicker recovery or lesser injuries for the victims," said K K Kapila, Chairman, Geneva based International Road Federation (IRF).
The Enhanced First Aid for Drivers programme is specially developed for IRF by a team of international experts to world class standard, the statement said.
The IRF is introducing this initiative under a newly launched arm - International Collaborative Centre for Mitigation of Adverse Outcomes from Traffic Incidents (ICMOT).
Mitra added that the GPS details will help understand
the road design at site. Besides, vehicle analysis and person related details would help analyse accidents.
The government said the new format has been developed after a series of deliberations.
The accident recording form has five sections designed to capture all relevant information like accident identification/location, road condition, vehicles involved and victim details.
Section A contains accident identification details like location, vehicle type etc while section B captures road conditions and features like culvert, gradient, pothole etc.
"Section C would capture details about vehicle - both motorized and non-motorised, overloading etc. Section D would capture traffic violations by drivers and Section E would capture details about persons other than drivers involved in the accident," the statement said, adding the form is simple and would be easy for the police persons at thana levels to understand and fill up. It also minimises subjective elements.
In addition, the committee has also developed a set of corresponding annual road accident data Reporting Format consisting of 17 forms in which the states/ UTs would be required to furnish the annual road accident data to the Transport Research Wing of the Ministry within one month of the completion of a calendar year.
"This development is important as the data forms the basis for analysing the cause of accidents, identifying black spots and taking corrective steps to eliminate the same," the statement said.
This is also the data that gets compiled by the Transport Research Wing of the Ministry in its annual publication Road Accidents in India.
Over a period of time the data will reveal patterns which will provide solutions and enable action to be taken.
The Ministry had constituted the committee to review and recommend the 17-item format for reporting of road accident by the State/UT Police Departments to the Ministry for the annual publication of road accidents in India.
The committee included experts from IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kharagpur, WHO, senior officers from Police and Transport Departments of states, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and officers of the ministry.
