Dr Guneet Singh of the Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER has been granted a scholarship for her oral presentation of research work at the Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC2021), being held in Melbourne, 28-30 September 2021.
Dr Guneet Singh, who did her doctorate on road safety specializing in driver behaviour and traffic psychology, from Panjab University, had earlier worked on a World Bank project on Road Safety for the Rajasthan government and had represented India at the 2017 Australasian Road Safety Conference as well which was held in Perth Australia. It was her multiple participation in the symposium, oral and poster presentation and the scholarship that included her travel, stay and registration at ARSC2017. She has also been the recipient of another scholarship by22nd International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety for an oral presentation at a conference in Canada in 2019.
Since Covid19 restrictions would not give her the opportunity to attend the ARSC2021 at Melbourne, the scholarship, funded by the Australian Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications this year, includes her full registration for the virtual Conference and a 12-month personal membership to the Australasian College of Road Safety.
An author and recipient of Chandigarh Administration’s Republic Day Award 2020 for her service to promoting road safety as a Traffic Marshal, Dr Guneet’s research paper is titled “Self-perception, driving patterns and gender differences on psychological measures of young Indian drivers”.
“Road safety is quite an underrated phenomenon and the statistics of mortality and morbidity due to road crashes are unexpectedly high. The scenario in India is unfortunately grim and there is a dire need to strictly address this public health issue so that untimely deaths could be avoided and young lives can be saved. A grave need for mass awareness and education at school level with stringent execution of licensing procedure, and driving violations is required” said Dr Guneet.
