In an agonising fire mishap in a car had claimed the lives of a 34-year-old woman and her two daughters near the Akshardham flyover in east Delhi, on last Sunday. The incident has forced the Delhi traffic police to start an awareness drive suggesting drivers to install fire extinguishers in cars.
On Tuesday, at the ITO intersection in Central Delhi the traffic police personnel were found quite busy in imparting fire safety lessons to the motorists. According to the special commissioner of police (traffic) Taj Hassan,
the campaign that started from ITO intersection will spread to all the major junctions across the national capital in the coming days.
He quoted, “Our road safety team will continue this drive to educate drivers, especially of vehicles that are operated on CNG, to install fire extinguishers and prevent any major fire tragedy.”
The drivers of school vans and other private transportation modes ferrying schoolchildren are under focus in this regard. The awareness teams have been instructed to speak with them specially because the CNG operated vehicles are more prone to such accidents though the system is considered to be more cost -efficient.
Speaking about their progress one senior traffic official said, “We already have conveyed some educational sessions in schools which include fire safety lessons in it.” He added that being aware of some small tricks people will be capable of preventing big fatal incidents. They should be trained with things like spotting a fire in the vehicle at the initial stage, how to use a fire extinguisher, and the safe way of escaping an ablaze vehicle if it has been centrally locked, etc.
On the other side, during the awareness sessions this has come to their knowledge that many of the vehicle owners are also not aware of some basic safety features that are already there in their vehicles. As one such commuter, a 33-year-old government employee Dhruti Leekha said that as of now she did not know that if the car is centrally locked, the detachable head rests of the driver and the passenger seats could be used to break open the window glass.
She told, ‘We are not aware of many important features of our car that can save our life in case of a fire. I usually find such displays quite annoying but this guide is extremely helpful and these things can be passed to the commuters’ when they wait at a signal.’
The traffic police department of Delhi is committed to the welfare of the citizens and keep itself ready to ensure discipline on public roads and effective traffic management with a view to facilitate smooth flow of traffic and reduction of any possible accidents.
