The Kerala High Court has said a luxury car crash that killed three young people could have been prevented if technology had alerted the police to the accused’s earlier instances of high-speed driving, news agency Press Trust of India reported.
The court suggested creating a platform to help prevent such crashes and said artificial intelligence cameras equipped with automatic number plate recognition should alert the police when they detect speeding vehicles.
A bench of Justices Raja Vijayraghavan V and K V Jayakumar asked the Kerala State Electronics Development Corporation Limited, or KELTRON, how many speeding vehicles had been detected by AI cameras in the past two months, how many cases had been reported to the authorities and whether any action had been taken.
“The boy in the accident was earlier driving at over 210 km/hr. If your camera had detected it and informed the authorities, the accident would not have taken place. There is technology for everything, but you are not able to use it,” the bench observed.
“Unless you do something about it, things are going to be really bad. Imagine the impact of the three children dying on their families,” the bench said while hearing a case it had initiated on its own over the rise in road accidents in Kerala.
Three people aged around 21, including two women, were killed when a speeding luxury car hit their scooter at Nedumbassery near Kochi early on October 11. The car was allegedly driven by 19-year-old Suhail, who was under the influence of alcohol, PTI reported.
The court said the state government must explain the measures it planned to take to prevent road accidents and asked it not to treat the issue lightly.
“We are extremely serious. Tell us in what time you can come up with a platform that will end everything,” the bench said, referring to accidents. It also asked the government to use the road safety fund to develop the platform.
“Having regard to the urgency of the matter and the importance of ensuring road safety, we expect all the respondents to extend their full cooperation and take prompt and effective steps to comply with the directions issued by this court,” the bench said.
The court had earlier issued several directions, including a survey of all state highways and major district roads. It had also directed that public transport buses follow lane rules and refrain from overtaking or speeding to maintain stipulated timings.
Other directions included preventing vehicles from being parked along highways and introducing a driver profiling system under which the licence of a person with more than 10 traffic challans would be revoked.
The bench said its earlier directions, including the formation of road safety committees in every district, must be implemented within a fixed timeframe and without delay.
It said the Kerala chief secretary, as the nodal authority for coordinating and monitoring compliance, must ensure effective coordination among the departments and agencies concerned.
“The existence of multiple authorities shall not be a ground for deferring action or passing responsibility from one department to another. Each respondent shall obtain the necessary instructions and be ready to apprise this court of the specific measures taken or proposed to be taken, details of the officers responsible for implementation and the timelines for completion, in accordance with the directions already issued,” the court said.
The court listed the case for its next hearing on November 3, directing the authorities to act promptly on road safety measures and report their implementation plans and timelines.
– Ends
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