Road Safety Awareness Campaign: (February 2009)

Due to urbanization, the population of Kathmandu valley in increasing rapidly. With urbanization the numbers of vehicles are also increasing leading to increase in road side accidents. Road Side Accidents leads to three major things: a. Fatality b. Injuries c. Property damage. The loss and suffering associated with road traffic deaths and injuries are increasing. Though literacy rate is increasing , there is lack of awareness. As there is no strict enforcement of traffic rules and regulation educated people too are seen voilating it.

If current trends continue, the number of people killed and injured on the world’s roads will rise by more than 60% between 2000 and 2020. Most of these injuries will occur in developing countries where more and more people are using motorized transport. In these countries, motorcyclists, users of public transport, and pedestrians are especially vulnerable to road traffic injuries.

There are solutions to the road safety problem. A wide range of effective interventions exist, and experience in countries with long histories of motorized travel has shown that a scientific, "systems approach" to road safety is essential to tackling the problem. This approach addresses the traffic system as a whole and looks at the interactions between vehicles, road users and the road infrastructure to identify solutions.The other solution can be raising awreness and enforcing strict rules and regulations.

With firm political will , Awareness campaign and an integrated approach that addresses vehicles, the people who use roads, and the road infrastructure, roads can be made safer.
Every day more than four accidents are waiting to happen in the roads of Kathmandu valley. News of accidents and deaths are never ending stories. We can’t help the death caused by natural disasters, war, and other unseen factors, but death due to road accidents can be decreased if we get conscious. Therefore at this point it’s very much important we stand for a cause. Understanding that it’s not just the duty of traffic police, UNYSAN carried on a campaign for road safety from 25th January 2009.

Most accidents that happen involves youth of our nation. Either the casualties or the riders are youth. We can’t touch the emotions or preach the youth that easily. The upcoming youth can however be dealt. Therefore we targeted the students of Classes 9, 10 and +2; those who will be very much interested in riding bikes.

During our planning and preparing phase we surveyed much about roadside accidents, causes and its solutions.We interviewed some pedestrians and traffic offical reagaring the negligence towards Road safety.We took data from Metropolition

Traffic Sector, and various other sources. Our mode of carrying on the campaign was:
Presentation of 20 minutes
Screening of interviews
Short movie of 12 minutes
Discussion of 15 minutes with the students of the institutions.
We conducted our campaign in education institutions where we could give our message to a huge mass, Most of the institutions were within the ring road. The institutions we conducted are as follows:

• United School, Satdobato, Lalitpur
• Rosebud School, Buddhanagar, Kathmandu
• Mini Land School, Teku, Kathmandu
• Kathmandu Valley School, Narayan Gopal Chowk, Kathmandu
• Ideal Model School, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur
• Future Star, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur
• Modern Indian School, Chobar, Kathmandu
Whitefield Higher Secondary School, Chhetrapati, Kathmandu
Gyan Jyoti Vidhya Mandir, Ganeshthan, Kathmandu
• D.A.V Sushil Kedia School, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur
• Subhatara School, Sanepa Height, Lalitpur