Road Safety Week Special: Hyderabad Battles For Road To Safety

Hyderabad: India Road Safety week campaign got underway as part of NDTV and Diageo’s Road To Safety initiative, with a ground activity in Hyderabad. The initiative partnered with two other NGOs – Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of India and Mission Smart Ride, to organise a Walkathon, which was kick started at Hyderabad’s Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park at 8.30 am (IST). Despite the early winter morning, around 70 volunteers from the NGOs and other self-driven individuals passionate about the road safety cause joined hands and walked for two kilometres, from KBR Park to Jubilee Hills Check post,  to spread awareness about the grim realities of India’s road conditions and rising deaths due to accidents.

It is said that Indian roads are the most dangerous in the world. On an average, there is one accident every minute, and one death in every four minutes. Records suggest that most of these deaths are of people between the ages 15 and 29.

Also Read: How Dangerous Are India’s Roads?

The participants of the Walkathon in Hyderabad also distributed red roses to all drivers, riders, passengers and pedestrians who were following the road safety rules in the vicinity.

The Walkathon is the first in a series of activities lined up to mark India Road Safety Week, including a day-long Conclave. These initiatives are part of a larger United Spirits NDTV’s Road to Safety campaign (a Diageo initiative), which is into its third edition. The objective of this campaign is to address concerns on road safety in the country.  Road safety and drink driving have been two ongoing issues in our country. This year’s aim for the campaign is #NeverDrinkandDrive.

Also Read: With Rising Number Of Road Deaths, Why India Needs To Fight Drink Driving

Flagging of the Walkathon in Hyderabad, Navdeep Singh Mehram, Head – Sustainability, United Spirits Limited said,

While there are many factors to consider such as awareness, road signals, road engineering, one of the major reasons for the rise in road accidents in the country is drink driving. Our objective is to let people know that Drink and Driving kills.

He also added,

Back home, we encourage our children to contribute the family’s decisions, and that’s how we selected Hyderabad, the capital of the youngest state in the country, Telangana to flag off this event from, encouraging the other states to follow through.

Also Read: A Grieving Dad’s Appeal: Wear A Helmet And Make Indian Roads Safer

The campaign aims for a roadmap to a future where every life is valued by actively engaging with the country’s leading experts, policy makers, NGOs and activists to highlight local issues, agenda and recommendations.

Pledge Now: Join the #NeverDrinkAndDrive Campaign