IIT Madras Empowers Karnataka State Police with Advanced Scientific Crash Investigation Training

IIT Madras CoERS held a three-day workshop for Karnataka State Police on 'Structured Crash Investigation using RCAM,' focusing on design thinking to enhance Road Traffic Accident investigations. Know details here

The Centre of Excellence for Road Safety (CoERS) at IIT Madras held a three-day training programme in Mysore for the Karnataka State Police. The course focused on 'Structured Crash Investigation using Root Cause Analysis Matrix (RCAM)' and aimed to enhance police skills through design thinking principles. The training was designed to improve Road Traffic Accident (RTA) investigations, with a strong emphasis on understanding human factors to better determine the causes of accidents.

The workshop aimed to equip road crash investigators with practical skills for adopting a systems approach to problem-solving. It included training on the 'Root Cause Analysis Matrix' (RCAM), a tool for conducting structured crash investigations. Additionally, the program focused on on-field data collection, analysis, and effectively communicating hypotheses.

Providing insights on the importance of the training program, Alok Kumar, IPS Additional Director General of Police (Training and Road Safety), Karnataka, said, “We are very pleased about the training programme. It's 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”.

Outcomes of Structured Crash Investigation Using Root Cause Analysis Matrix (RCAM) Training

• Understanding the root cause analysis matrix (RCAM) methodology towards conducting a structure crash analysis
• Encourage the use of data-driven and scientific strategies to develop targeted interventions
• Knowledge sharing of best practices on design thinking approach to creative problem solving for better understanding of various human factors leading to road crashes
• Improve the capacity of the investigation officers to perform death audits

Elaborating on the need for the programme, Prof. Venkatesh Balasubramanian, Head, CoERS and RBG Labs, Department of Engineering Design, IIT Madras said, “A scientific approach to enforcement in road safety is an essential requirement to formulate preventive interventions to reduce the occurrence of crashes. RCAM provides a structured methodology to investigate the root causes of a crash based on a 3M&E model. This methodology enables factual collection of human, vehicle and property damage data and perform evidence-based design of interventions for improving road safety.”

Explaining the need for the programme, Dr. M.B Boralingaiah, IPS, DIGP, Director, Karnataka Police Academy (KPA), said, “This capacity building program is a significant step towards bringing a change in the officers to approach the crash data collection and collation from a scientific investigation point of view. RCAM methodology will provide a structured approach to identify the contributing factors of the crashes, identify responsible stakeholder to take rectification measures thereby prevent its future occurrence. This programme is a good beginning which will help us determine effective interventions in the future.”

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