State governments get crash data template on Union ministry's direction

Hyderabad: The Union ministry of road transport and highways has directed all the state governments to maintain a uniform accident recording format. Earlier, the police was recording only the details of the accident along with information about the driver, the victim and the vehicles involved. The new pattern will have a few more columns on the nature of the road and signalling information. Senior adviser to the ministry, Kirti Saxena, said in a circular to state governments that the authorities should follow the pattern. Before beginning of the process, a training session should be organised.

The new pattern will have recordings of the type of weather — like sunny/clear, rainy, foggyy/misty, hail etc – the type of collision, the road’s name, number, land mark, the GPS location with latitude and longitude data-ils, the condition of the surface like paved or un-paved, the type of the road — like expressway, national highway, state highway — whether the locale is urban or non-urban, whet-her the road was having works/constructions, the speed limit on the road, the visibility at the accident spot, road features —like straight, curved – pr-essence of bridge, culvert, potholes, the nature of the junction, the type of traffic control like signals, and the facilities for pede-strians in case they are the victims.