LUCKNOW, Feb. 8 -- Calling for permanent hoardings at black spots with the support of municipal bodies and wider use of social media to spread road safety messages, Uttar Pradesh director general of police (DGP) Rajeev Krishna on Saturday stressed that year-round awareness and consistent enforcement are more effective than sporadic campaigns. The DGP was speaking at the launch of a two-day state-level road safety workshop at the police headquarters in Lucknow in collaboration with the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE), Faridabad (Haryana), as part of the government's push to reduce road accidents and fatalities. The workshop follows chief minister Yogi Adityanath's directive to bring road accident deaths to the minimum possible level through sustained and structured interventions. The programme focuses on strengthening the five core pillars of road safety - education, enforcement, engineering, emergency care and environment - with special emphasis on the 'Zero Fatality District' (ZFD) initiative launched in November. In its first phase, ZFD covered 20 districts, where 242 critical police stations, 89 accident-prone corridors and over 3,200 crash locations were identified and addressed, yielding "encouraging" results, they said. Encouraged by the outcome, the ZFD programme is now being expanded to the remaining 55 districts. The workshop is being attended by 44 gazetted traffic officers, 55 inspectors and sub-inspectors, and 55 critical corridor team leaders from these districts. Sharing results of pilot ZFD projects on the Aligarh-Bulandshahr, Kanpur-Hamirpur and Lucknow-Sitapur routes, the DGP said focused patrolling and scientific analysis of accident causes led to a 30% to 58% reduction in accidents within two months. He underlined that certainty of punishment for violations is more important than higher fines. Additional director general of police (traffic and road safety) A Satish Ganesh briefed participants on practical strategies to prevent accidents and minimise loss of life, reaffirming the state's commitment to safer roads. IRTE president Rohit Baluja highlighted the need for scientific, data-driven accident investigations, saying vague terms like "over-speeding" or "negligence" weaken cases. He also emphasised better coordination between police and transport departments and continuous capacity-building of officers, and noted that technology, such as AI cameras, plays a supporting role....