The vehicle has a range of sophisticated tools.
The Greater Chennai Police have developed a first-of-its-kind accident response and rescue vehicle. The modified ISUZU vehicle called VEERA -- Vehicle for Extrication and Emergency Rescue in Accidents -- has been designed to save lives of trapped passengers after crashes.
"The vehicle has a range of sophisticated tools including spreaders, cutters, wing, circular saw, first aid kit, among others, which could turn extrication of trapped passengers faster in the golden hour," Commissioner of Police Sandeep Rai Rathore told NDTV.
On lessons from a stampede-like situation at music maestro AR Rahman's concert mess outside Chennai over the weekend, Mr Rathore said, "We need to be careful about the issue of duplicate tickets."
"Chennai has a time-tested protocol for large gatherings like cricket matches," he added.
The vehicle was launched by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin last week and the police hope to expand this pilot across the state roping to corporates to support this under their corporate social responsibility projects.
Earlier, the state government had introduced a scheme to fund treatment of accident victims for the first 48 hours. The government had also announced a reward for those helping accident victims reach hospitals.
It is notable that Tamil Nadu has the dubious distinction of ranking number two in fatal road accidents with around 17,000 deaths in a year.