Zero Accident Day

Chennai | Zero Accident Day (ZAD)

In collaboration with the Greater Chennai Traffic Police (GCTP), CoERS launched a 20-day Zero Accident Day campaign in Chennai, focusing on driving behavioural change through targeted, research-backed interventions. The campaign engaged schools, colleges, IT parks, driver communities, and delivery ecosystems to ensure large-scale public participation.

The campaign was inaugurated on August 6, 2024, by Thiru R. Sudhakar, I.P.S., Additional Commissioner of Police, GCTP, at the MTC Headquarters. The event brought together policy leaders, enforcement authorities, academic experts, and urban mobility stakeholders.

Focus Areas

• Helmet compliance & defensive driving
• Youth awareness across schools and colleges
• Training programmes for MTC bus drivers, food delivery partners, auto and cab drivers
• Community-first education using interactive, experiential learning methods

Symbolic Launch Moments

Heart-shaped traffic signals were introduced on International Traffic Lights Day (August 5, 2024), placing empathy at the heart of road safety.

The slogan "Zero is Good" was unveiled across public installations, sparking conversations on zero accidents, zero loss, and zero compromise.

From heart-shaped traffic signals that remind people to drive with empathy, to school workshops empowering young ambassadors of change, ZAD makes safety visible, personal, and collective.

ZAD stands apart by leveraging deep crash data insights to identify high-risk groups and tailor interventions accordingly. In Tamil Nadu, helmet-related fatalities remain among the highest in India, making head protection and responsible riding key focus points.

Experiential training modules were developed for different age and profession groups, integrating empathy, accountability, and safety awareness into everyday mobility behavior.

ZAD is not just a campaign — it is the foundation of a long-term behavioural movement. By integrating education, enforcement, empathy, and data-driven strategy, CoERS and its partners aim to inspire every citizen to become an active participant in building a safer India.

More city campaigns under ZAD will follow — making zero accidents not just a dream, but a measurable, actionable goal.

Odisha - Bhubaneswar | Zero Accident Day (ZAD)

"Come Home Safe" — a public-led movement for safer roads. The Hon'ble Chief Minister envisioned an Odisha where every child can walk to school without fear, where parents can drive home without worry, and where everyone comes home safe. With this vision, the Zero Accident Day (ZAD) campaign was launched by the Government of Odisha on June 3, 2025 at Bhubaneswar, with a statewide commitment to safe commuting and life-saving action.

The campaign was built to transform road safety from merely following rules to embracing a culture of empathy and shared responsibility, running as a 23-day cascade of awareness drives, technical interventions and community engagements from June 3 to 25, 2025.

Launch & Leadership

The campaign unveiled Surakshya, its official mascot, alongside the ZAD logo, setting the stage for statewide engagement. Hon'ble MLA and renowned actor Shri Siddhant Mohapatra, and renowned sand artist and Padma Shree recipient Shri Sudarshan Pattnaik, were appointed as ZAD's brand ambassadors, bringing energy and visibility to the campaign.

Focus Areas

• Sand art installations and public art activations
• Mass morning pledges across districts
• Breathalyzer testing and enforcement drives
• Bike rallies, flash mobs and safety quizzes
• Driver training programmes across multiple districts
• Community engagement across urban neighbourhoods, slum settlements, highways, depots and shopping malls

Impact & Reach

Over 500 drivers were trained, multiple enforcement drives were launched, interactive stalls were hosted, and countless pledges were taken over the course of the campaign. ZAD directly reached an estimated 9,00,000 people, with millions more reached indirectly, becoming a movement rather than a series of isolated events.

The Vision Ahead

By combining policy enforcement, community education, depot-level engagement and creative public outreach, the "Come Home Safe" message resonated across sectors and communities. With the active involvement of top government officials, police forces, drivers, passengers, women and youth, Odisha took a significant step toward transforming road safety from a regulation into a culture — one built on empathy, collaboration and data-driven strategy that will continue to shape the state's road safety landscape for years to come.

Odisha - Keonjhar | Zero Accident Day (ZAD)

Zero Accident Day 2025 in Keonjhar was formally inaugurated by Hon'ble Chief Minister Shri Mohan Charan Majhi, in the presence of senior officials from the Transport Department, Police, RTO, and the district administration. The launch included road safety awareness stalls, the felicitation of Good Samaritans, and the presentation of the Banyan Road Safety Tree as a public commitment to safer behaviour. Awareness vehicles were also deployed to all 13 blocks to deliver structured road safety messages.

Coordinated Enforcement

Following the inauguration, the district implemented a coordinated enforcement plan across major highways, mining routes, toll plazas, and important junctions. Police and RTO teams focused on overspeeding, helmet and seatbelt violations, and other unsafe driving behaviours. Enforcement combined accountability with positive reinforcement — while violations were penalized, drivers who followed traffic rules were appreciated with roses and chocolates to promote a culture of responsible road use.

Community Awareness Activities

• Hatare Batare Ghatare Charcha — late-night highway discussions on fatigue, safe driving and emergency response
• Defensive driving and risk perception training sessions at IDTR
• Structured awareness programs in schools and colleges
• Community-focused sessions in high-risk areas such as Bayapandadar and Joda
• Expert-led discussions on road safety and first response broadcast by All India Radio Keonjhar

Campaign Impact

During the campaign, 1,446 enforcement cases were registered, and ₹64,12,215 was collected in challans, reflecting coordinated action by the Transport and Police Departments. More importantly, the initiative strengthened public understanding of road safety, improved voluntary compliance, and enhanced collaboration between citizens and enforcement agencies.

The Takeaway

Zero Accident Day 2025 demonstrated that when enforcement, education, and community participation are aligned under a unified strategy, meaningful progress toward safer roads becomes both measurable and achievable.

Uttar Pradesh - Ambedkar Nagar | Zero Accident Day (ZAD)

Making road safety a people's movement. Road crashes are not inevitable — they are preventable. Every crash affects not just an individual, but an entire family and community. The Zero Accident Day (ZAD) Campaign in Ambedkar Nagar, held from 7–21 July 2026, is built on a simple yet powerful belief: every road user deserves to return home safely.

ZAD is a district-wide road safety initiative implemented by the District Administration, Ambedkar Nagar, with technical support from the Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS), IIT Madras, under the Data Driven Hyperlocal Intervention (DDHI) programme supported by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The campaign draws on successful learnings from earlier interventions in Tamil Nadu and Odisha, adapted to the local context of Ambedkar Nagar.

A Community-Led Movement

ZAD goes beyond awareness campaigns, combining data-driven engineering improvements, community participation, behaviour change, enforcement, education and capacity building to create safer roads and safer road users. A defining feature of the campaign is the active participation of the community — particularly women. Thousands of Sadak Suraksha Sakhis (SSS) have been trained to become road safety ambassadors within their villages and neighbourhoods, driving door-to-door outreach, family conversations and community engagement to encourage safer behaviour on the road.

The campaign also brings together students, youth, teachers, drivers, transport stakeholders, local bodies, government departments, civil society organisations and the media, reinforcing that road safety is a shared responsibility.

Key Highlights of the Campaign

• District-wide launch led by the District Administration with a road safety pledge
• Community outreach by Sadak Suraksha Sakhis through door-to-door awareness campaigns
• Training and certification of Sadak Suraksha Mitras
• Official launch and handover of seven Black Spot Audit Reports prepared by CoERS, IIT Madras, along with the inauguration of engineering safety improvements
• School and college road safety pledge campaigns and awareness activities
• Gram Sabha-based road safety chaupals and citizen engagement
• Driver wellness camps with eye check-ups, fatigue management and blind-spot awareness
• Reflective tape distribution for bicycles, tractors and e-rickshaws
• Special traffic enforcement drives promoting helmet use, seat belts, speed compliance and responsible driving
• Digital outreach showcasing community participation and campaign impact

The Vision

Zero Accident Day is not limited to a specific date or campaign period — it is a vision to make safe road behaviour a daily habit and a collective responsibility. When government institutions, communities and citizens work together, safer roads become possible, because the true success of road safety is when every journey ends with someone returning home safely.