Lowest death rate in four years on Telangana roads
HYDERABAD: The roads of Telangana took away 6,596 lives in 2017, the lowest ever in last four years, making 2017 the safest year on roads for the new State. This was revealed in a report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways called, ‘Accidents in Indian 2017’. The number of deaths on the roads have consistently been high in the State, peaking especially in 2016 with 7,219 deaths reported in accidents.
In terms of overall accidents as well, for the first time in 4 years, was there a fall in numbers, though they were still high. The number of accidents in Telangana fell from 22,811 in 2016, to 22,484 in 2017. Of these only 6110 were fatal in nature revealed the report. The figures of Hyderabad also had a slight reason to cheer, with the severity index of accidents falling by 5 points.
However, as good as the numbers appear, experts say they aren’t foolproof. “At present the numbers are sent to MORTH by using police data, but are they collecting it in the right way? There is no proper mechanism in Telangana to collect accident data, and so we can easily say these do not reflect the real situation” said Vinod Kumar, Chief Functionary of Indian Federation of Road Safety.
