In India, there is one death every four minutes and some twenty children are killed every day due to road accidents. More than one million people have died in road accidents in India in the past decade and according to the latest data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), speeding and dangerous driving are the biggest reasons for road fatalities.
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It was not my son’s fault. Within few minutes I lost my 19-year old son forever, says 38 year old Himabindu Reddy.
It’s after this incident that Mrs Reddy along with her husband and another son decided to do something to prevent another person from losing a loved one due to unsafe roads. She started with an organization called Sriharsha Foundation. The motive of this organisation is to make sure that whosoever is behind the wheel is driving the vehicle with some responsibility.
Till now we have successfully held two road to safety events here in Hyderabad, we plan to do many more. When you drive on roads, you need to take care of some 50 things – our plan is to just make people aware about these things, added B. Vasu Nagarjuna Reddy, Operational Head, Shriharsha Foundation.
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The Foundation has roped in a Hyderabad Jonathan Bike Rider Club to train drivers on how to drive carefully and what they need to keep in mind while driving a car, bicycle or a motorbike.
Telugu Film Actor, Naga Chaitanya also lent his support for this cause; he is currently the brand ambassador for the campaign initiated by the organisation – Stop Speed.
Recently, a rally with 1,000 bikers along with actor Naga Chaitanya was held in the city to promote safety, defensive, accident-free driving and the importance of wearing helmets, seat belts and other safety gears.
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Hyderabad Traffic Police reports that some 2,271 accidents have taken place this year out of which in 371 cases people died on the roads itself.
Keeping the grim figures in mind, Himabindu’s organization aims to reduce the number of road accidents to zero.