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Recently (August 9 ) the Managing Director of the Loss Prevention Association was in the metro to release the book – ‘Drivers’ Guide’, a manual to educate drivers of heavy vehicles, about road safety. Chennai Chips met him and over a cup of coffee and snacks, discovered just what LPA is into. Some excerpts of the talk:

What are the activities of LPA and how is it supported by the Insurance Companies?

The Loss Prevention Association was founded in 1978 to propagate the concept of safety education and loss prevention. Basically, our activities are not confined to working for the insurance companies. We are working for the public at large. Only our financial implications are being supported by insurance companies. In India, only about 2% of the public are holding an insurance policy of some kind, so the insurance companies felt that if some outfit was there to educate people about the safety and loss prevention aspects, then it would also lead to prevention and minimisation of losses. So that is how the General Insurance industry got interested in our outfit.

What is your role towards individuals/ factories and society?

Our activities are not confined only to a particular type of aspect. We are concerned about road, fire, household and industrial safety. At the moment, our target is road safety. About eighty thousand people are losing their lives every year in road accidents and this is not only because of the drivers. We felt that the users of the road also have to be trained. Most of the accidents – about 70%, are being caused by heavy road transport vehicles. We have come out with a safety education program for the drivers – in fact, I have come to Chennai for the release of the driver’s safety guide function. We have already organised such functions at other places like in Ahmedabad, where I was the key rote speaker. We have also brought out literature on safe two wheeler driving, because we feel that young people who are coming of age should be trained on how to drive their vehicles safely.

But how successful are these books and literature? Are people really reading it?

Yes, yes they are going by it. What we have said is that with the overall thrust – many other measures are also being taken, the accident ratio is coming down. Even if it hasn’t come down, it has been steady since the last three to four years in India.

But everyday you read in the papers about the number of accidents being on the incline?

If you compare the percentage increase in accidents with the percentage increase in number of vehicles, then you will see that the accident ratio is actually coming down.

What about the factory?

To start with, we conduct safety education programmes for the workers - when they are on the floor of the factory, what safety measures should they take so that accidents don’t occur. We also undertake safety audits, for example, in any fire in a factory where the amount is more than Rs.50 lakhs, the factory is required to use the services of our engineers who visit, study and give their account of the fire and issue the report. We have also entered the field of risk inspection – this means that at the time of taking insurance the organisation has to ask our engineers to go and see the factory and give suggestions on how the risk can be minimised there. Yes, we have twenty-four engineers who are highly qualified and even trained abroad who take care of this aspect.

Especially during festivals, say during Diwali time when children play with firecrackers and there are more chances of accidents occurring, we come out with a lot of publicity before the festival so that people can take precautions. The publicity is either in the form of posters or in various other media like the television. Apart from that, we educate people on how to use domestic appliances - electrical and other gadgets so that accident risk is minimised.

What has been the major achievement of LPA?

We have made the public aware of the need to prevent such accidents that cause damage to property and loss of human lives. At present, accidents are responsible for over 2 lakh reported deaths in the country. So we feel that even if we can be partially successful in our education programme, even if our success ratio is just 35 %, then we will be avoiding so many deaths through road accidents as well as damage to property.

If an accident takes place what is your role?

We have come out with a number of video films on how to avoid accidents. If someone is affected what should be done is the second part of the cassette. For instance, if a person receives burn injuries, then how is he to be treated. We are imparting education through our literature, video-cassettes and brochures all available with our branch offices throughout India at Delhi, Cochin, Chennai, Mumbai, Calcutta, and Hyderabad.

Does the government call you to probe or prevent such accidents recurring in some other unit?

No, but we are offering our services. If you recollect, in the fire that broke out at the Uphaar Cinema in Delhi some time back, we deputed our engineers to study it. The report was also prepared but nothing much was done by the owners of the cinema hall or the other authorities. But all the same, we do study and give our recommendations and findings. We feel that by analysing the reasons and causes, at least if not that particular person, then we can benefit some other person through our information or findings.

As the MD of LPA how do your perceive the role of LPA in the future?

Unfortunately, till now we were considered to be only serving the insurance companies. I envisage our role for the society at large, particularly our services. More efforts will be made to save the lives of people or property of those who have not taken insurance policies.

There is a talk of the privatisation of insurance companies doing the rounds. What will be the role of LPA then? What is your view on it? Do you support the privatisation bid?

See, irrespective of the decision of the government, there will be other players coming into the field. So, perhaps we will have a greater role to play. If today our services are restricted to five or six insurance companies, then in the future there will be say 20 or even 40 more companies utilising our services. In fact, our message will be going to a far larger spectrum of people.

What about the level of computerisation in LPA?

Our entire work is being done on computers. Rather, our message is reaching every nook and corner of the country through the web site of LPA in Chennai Online.

Do you take care of the financial losses too?

We don’t have too much of funds so we are only undertaking the study and educating part of it. We cannot afford to cover financial losses.

Any special message you would like to convey to the people?

Be safe, play safe. I would like to convey the message of safety.

How do you find the Chennai Online site?

I have seen it and I find a wide spectrum of activities on the Chennai Online web site. I see a bright future for Chennai Online.

Shobha Mathur Pandian

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