International Level Crossing Awareness Day

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Level crossings are an inherently easy way for people to cross the railway and are completely safe if the rules are followed by those using them. It is these users neglecting traffic rules at level crossings that not only put themselves at risk but also people travelling or working on trains. It is statistically clear that most of the accidents that occur at level crossings are caused by road users and pedestrians mainly because of their misbehaviour
That is why it is so important to highlight this issue and bring these risks to the attention of level crossing users and make them aware of the risks they run by not taking care. This is of course not a problem that can be uniquely addressed by the rail community, it has to be handled as one of shared concern amongst several players, including the road and rail sectors, police forces, road users and those with responsibility for licensing those users as well as with pedestrians including cyclists.
Accidents at level crossings can be avoided by “3 Es” viz Education, Engineering & Enforcement. With a view to spread awareness in this regard among the target audience, safety organization of Trivandrum division has drawn up various programmes from 06th June 2016(Monday).
Inauguration of the  road user education campaign will be launched at 11 am from  Thiruvananthapuram Central station by Prakash Butani, Divisional railway Manager, Trivandrum division. The  team will travel by road till 10th June  covering maximum Level crossing  gates especially in Alappuzha line. They will visit schools , interact with road users at LC gates for educating the mass in safe practices at LC gates.A concluding ceremony will be held at ernakulam on 10th june 2016.
Trivandrum  division has 351 level crossings now,  out of which only 3 are unmanned all others remain manned . In this division within Kerala area we do not have any unmanned level crossings. Last year we had closed 12 level crossings by way of constructing Road bridges .we plan to eliminate the remaining 3 Unmanned LCs in the division by the end of 2016 itself. Moreover we plan to interlock 28 of our non interlocked LCs in the current year there by enhancing safety.