IIT Madras conducts workshop for Karnataka police to improve road accident investigations

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS), conducted a three-day programme for the Karnataka police at Mysore on ‘Training on Structured Crash Investigation using Root Cause Analysis Matrix (RCAM)’. The programme aims to upskill the police with design thinking principles and to aid in improving the Road Traffic Accident (RTA) investigations.

The skills will help them to arrive at the cause of accidents with an emphasis on understanding human factors, the institute said.

Providing insights on the training programme, IPS Alok Kumar, additional director general of police training and road safety, Karnataka, said: “It is critical that investigating officers have a more receptive mind set and approach to gathering information about crashes. We must use a sound data collection procedure and conduct investigation in a scientific manner to establish the facts. We can identify better interventions in the future with the aid of this program, which is a good beginning”.

IIT-M: Key outcomes of programme

The objectives of the training programme are given below.

• Understanding the root cause analysis matrix (RCAM) methodology towards conducting a structure crash analysis.

• Encourage use of data-driven and scientific strategies to develop targeted interventions.

• Knowledge sharing on design thinking approach to problems.

• Better understanding of human factors leading to road crashes.

• Improved capacity of the investigation officers to perform death audits.

The CoERS at IIT Madras is funded by the ministry of road transport and highways, Government of India, to perform an evidence-based integrated approach towards road safety. CoERS mainly works on various aspects of human factors engineering, road engineering and vehicle engineering to bring improvements in road safety globally.

The deputy director, Chennabasavanna Langoti, Karnataka Police Academy (KPA), said: “RCAM workshop has provided our officers with practical skills and best practices in road crash investigation. By adopting a systems approach of RCAM, we can enhance our officer’s capacity to perform thorough death audits, focus on data-driven and scientific strategies to reduce the occurrence of crashes.”