Police personnel serving in highway patrol units and in police stations situated along the National and State Highways would be sensitised to road safety measures and the ways to protect themselves while engaged in accident rescue mission.
The State police headquarters has sent a communiqué instructing that road safety training programmes be organised across the State exclusively for police personnel attached to Highway Patrol units and those serving in stations on the highways.
The recent direction from the police top brass was a sequel to the death of three police personnel along with five others in a road accident near Marakkanam in Villupuram district a few days ago.
The police personnel were engaged in a rescue operation along with local people in the late night hours at Alapakkam near Marakkanam following a road accident involving a car and a van when a container lorry hit them causing the death of eight persons on the spot.
Concerned over the fatal accident, the top brass of the State police has directed that training programmes related to road safety be organised at the In-service training centres solely for police personnel serving in Highway Patrol units and those working in stations on the national and State highways.
The objective behind the programme is to sensitise the participants to road safety measures and to protect themselves while being engaged in rescue operations, say police sources. In addition to conducting programmes, top officers have been instructed to ascertain the availability of road safety equipment such as reflective jackets, reflective cones, and baton lights with the Highway Patrol units and in the police stations situated along the national and State highways. The officers have been asked to check whether the road safety apparatus were in working condition and to install scrolling blinking lights atop the highway patrol vehicles to make it more visible.
The Tiruchi Rural police has 11 Highway Patrol units patrolling various stretches along the national and State highways falling within its jurisdiction.
