About 40 lives, on an average, are lost in accidents on the roads in the state everyday. The state capital accounts for a major share of it. Authorities attribute rash and drunk driving, and mechanical failures to the fatal accidents.
With increase in road accidents on national highways, the road transport department is planning to conduct special a drive in January against drunken driving on highways to control the number of accidents.
The department is waiting for breath analysers. Hence the delay.
“We are planning to conduct a special drive against drunken driving on national highways and proposals for getting breath analysers were sent to the government. The department needs hundreds of breath analysers and the government promised to distribute the gadgets. Probably we will launch the drive during January 2-13,’’ a senior officer told Express.
According to Road Safety Authority officials, the state has recorded 27,914 accidents in this year till August, resulting in 10,087 deaths. These are fewer than the 29,976 accidents and 10,435 deaths during the same period in 2011. Transport authorities attribute the accidents to rash and negligent driving. In at least 80 percent of cases, the fault lay with the drivers.
Coming to the city, the Outer Ring Road (ORR) has became the death tracks for motorists. Though two-wheelers are not supposed to ply on this expressway, the laxity of authorities in preventing motorists from enter it is leading to fatal accidents.
The classic example is that of former cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin’s son Ayazuddin and his nephew who died in a road accident on the ORR near Puppalguda. They were zooming on a 1,000 cc sports bike, Suzuki GSX R1000, when their bike skidded off the road and they met with death.
Tollywood actor Kota Srinivasa Rao’s son, Kota Prasad, died in June 2010 when his 1,000 cc bike was hit by a truck on the ORR between Gachibowli and Shamshabad.
K Prateek Reddy, son of former minister and Congress MLA Komatireddy Venkata Reddy, was another victim on the ORR.
The city roads pose no less danger to the users. About 600 people died in road accidents in this calender year.
As against 380 deaths in the first seven months of 2011 in Cyberabad, the figure was 300 this year for the corresponding period. At least 137 deaths occurred in the city in January, February, March and April of 2011. The figure for the same period this year is 250.
This high accident rate is despite the fact that the traffic police and transport department registered over seven lakh cases of over-speeding, 60,000 cases of drunk driving, 55,000 cases for not using seat belts and at least 5.5 lakh cases for talking on mobile phone while driving during 2011-12.
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