HYDERABAD: State Transport and Cooperation Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana has called upon RTC drivers to strive for zero accident record this year.

He was the chief guest at the 17th road safety meet organised by the State Road Transport Corporation here on Friday in connection with the Road Safety Week programme being observed from January 2.

Appreciating RTC's low accident rate of 1.1 per 10 lakh km, the Minister said though it was quite low compared with other States, employees should strive to make RTC an accident-free organisation. As per statistics, close to one lakh lives were being lost in road accidents in the country every year and in the State 11,000 persons died and 36,000 were grievously injured last year. It was sad that a majority of the accidents were due to human error, negligence rather than technical reasons.

Court directive

Even the High Court, concerned over growing accidents gave a directive for adhering to safety norms like helmets, seat belts, ban on use of cellphones while driving.

As the number of accidents on State and national Highways was reaching alarming level, the State Government launched Safety Always For All Roads (SAFAR) programme in every district.Later 14 drivers from all six zones and city region were felicitated for their accident-free record and given cash awards.

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