Thiruvananthapuram: Only vehicles with no outstanding fines in the state will get a pollution test certificate from December 1. The decision was taken by the road safety review meeting chaired by Minister Antony Raju. The meeting assessed that the road accident death rate has decreased in the five months since the installation of the AI camera. From June 2023 to October 31, 2023 when the AI camera was installed, there were 1263 road accident deaths in the state. In the same period in 2022, 1669 people died in the state. In the month of September this year, 273 lives were lost in road accidents. But in the month of September last year, 365 people died in road accidents. In October last year, 340 people died in road accidents while this year, as per the report received so far, 85 deaths have occurred. The death rate may still vary as many of those in critical condition are being treated.
74,32,371 traffic violations were detected from June 5 to October when the cameras started functioning. Of these, 58,29,926 cases were checked, 23,06,023 cases were uploaded in the Integrated Transport Monitoring System and 2,103,801 challans were prepared. Over 139 crore fines were committed during this period. Around Rs 21.5 crore has already been received as penalty.
Riding two-wheelers without wearing a helmet accounted for the highest number of violations in the month of October at 21,865. The minister said that 13 MP-MLA vehicles have been fined during this period. The minister also said that he will hold a discussion with the heads of the insurance companies on November 15 in Thiruvananthapuram.
From November 1, it has been decided to make seat belt and cameras inside and outside the vehicle mandatory for drivers and front row passengers for fitness certificate.
