Bhubaneswar: In another step to reduce road fatalities, the Department of Commerce & Transport has mooted Odisha Crash Investigation Policy, 2022 for an immediate and time bound investigation of all crashes, especially the ones with 3 or more fatalities.
Official sources said Bishnupada Sethi, Principal Secretary Commerce & Transport has green signalled the draft policy.
According to the draft Policy document, the road mishaps of the above category will be probed by Crash Investigation Team consisting of the Investigating Officer (concerned Police Officer), designated Engineer of the concerned Road Owning Authority and Technical Officer of RTO.
The police officer not below the rank of ASI will initiate the investigation within 24 hours of the crash and intimate the lead agency on road safety, office of Transport Commissioner and Inspector General of Police (Crime) about the forensic investigation of the crash.
The police officer will also inform other members of the Road Crash Investigation Team including the designated engineer of the concerned road owning authority and technical officer Transport Department.
In case concerned officials fail to take action in time, disciplinary proceedings against the defaulted officers will be initiated for non-compliance to the Supreme Court’s directives, as per the draft policy.
The police will also collect inputs from the concerned road owning authority and technical officer within 5 days of the crash and submit the final report to the STA by e-mail and office of Inspector General of Police (Crime) within 10 days of the crash.
The report must have information about the human, infrastructure and vehicular factors involved in the said crash.
The road engineer has to ensure proper investigation of the scene with scene photographs as per the Guidance for Photographic Evidence Collection from road engineering point of view. The investigation should be conducted covering human, vehicular, Infrastructure and Environmental factors leading to the crash. The officer will have to forward a signed copy of the same to the investigating police officer within 5 days.
The duty of the technical officer is to conduct vehicle inspection as per Section 136 of MV Act 1988 and other related sections and submit his report to the investigating police official in 5 days.
For proper coordination and supervision, Coordination Committees will be constituted at District and State level under the chairmanship of District Magistrate and Transport Commissioner, respectively. The panel will review the reports and take action against officials, who will be found violating the orders of the SC panel and existing norms.
As per the policy, the Regional Transport Officer (RTO) will prepare an Action Taken Report every quarter based on all the Crash Investigation Reports. The report will be submitted to the Lead Agency on Road Safety within 45 days from the end of the quarter. The report shall include analysis of causal factors of various crashes.
Along with the Action Taken Report, the RTO will also function as the custodian for all the reports received from the Road Crash Investigation Committee.
All the recommendations and suggestions made in the Crash Investigation Report and the Action Taken Report will be implemented in a timely manner by the District Road Safety Committee.