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Along with its beautiful natural mountainous landscape, Himachal Pradesh is also known for its adverse geographical, geological, topographical and climatic conditions which make the state vulnerable to a number of disasters and road accidents. Compared to other fatal events in the state, road accidents happen more frequently, killing and injuring a huge number of people every year. According to the official data, a total of 3174 people have lost their lives in the state between the year 2019 and 2021. While many of these accidents take place due to reckless driving and over-speeding, some of the associated deaths occur in the absence of timely transportation of victims to a nearby hospital.
Considering this, Doers submitted a proposal to the SBI General Insurance seeking financial support to take a set of measures for minimizing the preventable deaths caused by road accidents in district Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. After a round of deliberations, the SBI General Insurance decided to support the 'Road Safety Project, Himachal Pradesh (2022-23)' implemented by Doers, in collaboration with the Himachal Pradesh Police, Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Himachal Pradesh.
The project was a strategic local action towards achieving the goal of 'Decade of Action for Road Safety (2021-2030)' by the World Health Organization. It was executed within the jurisdiction of 4 Police Stations of district Mandi, namely- PS Sadar Mandi, PS Balh, PS BSL Colony and PS Sundernagar.
The key objectives of the project were:
To reduce the number of road accidents through installing cautionary Road Sign Boards in the project area.
To reduce the time required for responding to road accidents by augmenting the existing Ambulance Support in the project area.
The project had two main components:
Installation of 40 retro-reflective Road Sign Boards between the road stretch between Mandi to Sundernagar.
Provision of a fully-equipped BLS Ambulance at the Civil Hospital Sundernagar, District Mandi.
Doers will continue to work with Himachal Pradesh Police and the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Government of Himachal Pradesh to monitor the road accidents related data and related casualties for measuring the impact of the project.