The West Bengal government has decided to conduct a study to understand the effectiveness (or the lack of it) of its traffic campaign “Safe Drive, Save Life”. The state-wide campaign – a road safety initiative to reduce the number of road accidents by spreading awareness – was started by the state in 2016.
Bengal government’s transport department will send bulk messages to mobile numbers with a relevant link to assess people’s level of awareness about the ongoing campaign. On visiting the link, there will be various questions to answer, in order to test their awareness of various aspects of the campaign.
This will include questions on whether they are aware of the existence of such a campaign, how they came to know about it, whether they were part of any road meetings or road shows that are conducted as a part of the campaign, whether they are aware of the meaning of various traffic signals and so on.
Questionnaires – prepared in English and Bengali – have been prepared according to various age groups. Although the state police authorities have been conducting various programs to create awareness about the campaign for the past few years, people’s response and enthusiasm appears to be going down. One such example is visiting petrol pumps to buy petrol in two-wheelers without helmets which is strictly forbidden in the “No Helmet, No Petrol” directive. This is the main reason for assessing the awareness level. The link has been sent to all the block development officers and transport officials of every district, from where it will be forwarded to phone numbers.
