HYDERABAD: The Outer Ring Road (ORR) turned into a veritable death trap yet again when three persons were killed after the car they were travelling hit a culvert near Patancheru in Medak district in the late hours of Sunday.
According to the police, the accident was result of rash driving. “The driver lost control and hit a boulder before ramming the culvert on the ring road,” Inspector Ravinder Reddy said. The accident occurred around 11 pm at Patti village when the car was proceeding to Medchal from Khanapur. The deceased have been identified as Prashant Kumar (27), Praveen Kumar (25) and Vinod Kumar (30). The injured, Swamy Das (26), has been admitted to a private hospital.
Prashant and Praveen died on the spot while Vinod was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. All the four were relatives and were on their way to Medchal to drop Prashant after having dinner at Khanapur. An autopsy was conducted on the bodies before handing them over to their families.
The Nehru ORR, since its inauguration, has been much in news for the series of fatal accidents. Considering the nature of these high speed express lanes, motorists are barred from using the stretch. Lack of effective patrolling, CCTV cameras and police outposts notwithstanding, rash and reckless driving on the ORR has been the bane for vehicle drivers.
Some of the high profile accidents include the ones that led to the deaths of cricketer Md Azaruddin’s son, film actor Kota Srinivasa Rao’s son and politician Komatireddy Venkatreddy’s son. However, police officials claim that the number of accidents has come down in 2014 compared to previous years. They say intensified patrolling and use of speed guns have paved the way for less number of accidents.
As against 42 accidents between January and June 2013, there were 26 deaths and 43 injuries. There were only 31 accidents, 18 deaths and 29 injuries in the same correspinding period in 2014.