Trailblazing Road Safety and Commuter’s “Vision Zero Planning” in NH-55 (Angul Sector)

Prelude: Road traffic accidents (RTAs) cause injuries, disabilities, and fatalities and are the major health issues globally in developing countries and also in India. The 29km stretch of NH-55(old NH-42) between Tata steel LTD, Meramundali to Angul has turned into a death trap for the 29km stretch is alarming and highly prone to RTAs after the development of many large-scale industries and townships, which needs planning and formulations.

Objective: To address the death trap in the Angul sector in NH-55, RTAs are collected and alternate commuting for the pedestrians, two or more wheeled motorized/manual vehicles for road use has been suggested. The present traffic problems faced include heavy traffic, deteriorated roads, blocking of foresight, traffic jams, RTA’s, pollution, etc.

Methods: Present research aims at forming a database for road conditions, vulnerable places, RTAs frequency, and severity data collected from authentic sources from time to time. Analysis of the data is done regarding accident frequency and severity index. A thorough study of causes and types of accidents has been discussed with RTAs addressable.

Conclusions: Frequent RTAs, road traffic injuries (RTIs), are found due to excessive use of mobile phones, busy traffic and fatigue crews, unconscious pedestrians, reckless two-wheelers drivers, and distracted driving of loaded trucks are found to be the major reasons for road crashes in the area. Improvised driver conduct, use of eye tracker, community education, traffic control enforcement, or bypass can address the trend in the frequency of RTAs and RTIs in NH-55. The immediate action plan is the construction of four black spots, overbridges, and vehicle under pass to complete the under-construction activities to follow the vision zero of SDG 9 and SDG 11.