13.12.20

Mumbai - Pune Expressway: Zero fatality corridor

Working with the Maharashtra Highway Police, SaveLife Foundation NGO has introduced its zero-fatality corridor initiative on Mumbai-Pune Expressway, installing a three-lane vehicle-activated speed sign system, making it the first highway with such a vigil.

VASS detects speeds of oncoming vehicles and flashes it back to the driver on their mobile phone, so they correct their behaviour. The offenders immediately receive a picture of themselves along with an alerting message, on their registered mobile phone. The system, which has been introduced on the 95-km Mumbai-Pune Expressway, also works with artificial intelligence to identify the mobile phone usage by drivers.

Piyush Tewari, who helms Save-Life Foundation said, “This is a first for the country and our contribution to making the e-way safer. Going ahead, we will extend the system to other roads in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and NCR where our ZFC initiative is operational. It is a potent tool which will work as our arsenal in controlling speeding on highways.”

According to data procured by his NGO, distracted driving has been a major cause for deaths on highways with nearly 5,000 people losing their lives in 2019 due to mobile phone use. In fact, two images taken earlier this month, of which one was of a police/ VIP vehicle, wherein the vehicle was being driven at 91 kmph and both the hands of the driver were off the steering wheel.

“One of the major reasons for accidents on the e-way continues to be distracted driving, when people are usually on their phone and not focused on the steering wheel. While action is being taken against these practices, such a system was not in place before. These images, which have been captured by the system installed, make it easy for us to nab the offenders,” accepted Sanjay Jadhav, inspector with the highway police.

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