VIJAYAWADA: As many as 244 persons died in road accidents reported in the district in 2020. A majority of the fatalities were due to overspeeding, riding without helmets and driving without seat belts on, said collector A Md Imtiaz.Speaking at the District Road Safety Committee meeting held at his camp office here on Saturday, the collector informed that a majority of the mishaps took pace on the national highway passing through the district.
“Of the total 244 fatalities, 155 were alone reported on the NH. As many as 60 per cent of the deaths were due to driving without wearing seat belts and 45 per cent for helmet-less driving. The road accident deaths can be reduced significantly if only the vehicle users strictly follow the guidelines as per the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act,” he observed. Other factors leading to deaths include overtaking and drunken driving, he said and ordered the police to book drunk driving cases across the district.
Taking a serious note of the matter, Imtiaz directed the NH, R&B, transport, police, enforcement and panchayat raj officials to conduct a joint inspection on major roads in the district to identify the accident hotspots and initiate measures to reduce the road mishaps. “Special focus should be laid by to intensify vigil near Vedadri, where more number of road accidents have been reported this year. This apart, the enforcement wing officials should gather the details of patrolling vehicles and other vehicles passing through the toll plazas and submit the information to the transport department,” the collector said.
Deputy transport commissioner (DTC) M Purendra said the transport department has registered a total of 10,339 cases for different violations, 1,661 of which were for helmet-less riding. “In a special drive conducted by the police, 3,73,579 persons were booked for helmet-less riding, 5,407 for driving without wearing seat belt and 3,551 for overspeeding,” he said, adding that discussions were also conducted about the implementation of amendments made to the MV Act,2019 from January 1.