Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has asked officials to follow the '5E' formula of education, enforcement, engineering, emergency care and environment to curb road accidents.
He also termed as "worrying", the fact that while Covid claimed 23,600 lives over three years, road accidents led to loss of 21,200 lives in just one year 2022.
The state government will be carrying out a month-long campaign on road safety from January 5 to February 4.
Yogi said the responsibility for road safety is not just limited to one department and community effort is needed to prevent accidents.
Other than poor road engineering, over speeding, overloading, not using safety equipment and driving inebriated are the major causes.
Most cases take place in large cities like Kanpur, Agra, Prayagraj, Aligarh, Bulandshahr and Mathura.
He said that efforts should be made to focus on national highways and expressways linked with these cities.
A task force should be set up to stop overloading.
(With inputs from IANS)
