HYDERABAD: A majority of the road accidents on the 158 km Outer Ring Road (ORR) happen due to overspeeding, collisions with crash barriers and medians, rear-end collisions, vehicle overturn, animal collision, skidding, hit and run cases, tyre burst, driving while sleeping, vehicles going out of control and fire in the vehicles, among other.
Between September 2023 and January 2024, as many as 500 major and minor accidents took place on the ORR stretch and 20-25 persons lost their lives in fatal accidents and a few hundred persons including children had been injured in the last five months.
Sources said that in September 2023, as many as 66 road accidents have been reported on the ORR stretch in which four accidents were fatal. In others, people suffered minor and major injuries. In October 2023, around 120 accidents took place in which four persons died in fatal accidents, nine adults and 76 minors were injured.
In November 2023, around 130 accidents were reported among which six were fatal and eight persons died, 15 adults and 76 minors were injured. In December 2023, about three persons died, 12 adults and 57 minors were injured. In January 2024, a total of 93 accidents were reported in which five persons died in four fatal accidents and as many as 20 adults and 59 children received injuries.
The fatalities have been less, thanks to the establishment of a life-saving trauma care centre facility set up by the state government along the ORR.
The government has set up 16 trauma care centres and 10 advanced life support ambulances at ORR interchanges. Tukkuguda, Shamshabad and TSPA Interchange to extend advanced medical emergency care on ORR to injured patients. These centres provide emergency care to the accident victims on the spot and if needed, they are shifted to the trauma centres. Later, depending on the victims’ condition, they are shifted to the hospital of their choice.
Despite creating awareness, commuters tend to break traffic rules leading to fatal accidents.
Actor Kota Srinivasa Rao’s son Kota Prasad died in a road mishap while riding his 1000 cc bike. Prasad collided with a van at an intersection near the Police Academy on the ORR and fell under the wheels
Son of former Cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin lost his life in an accident similarly on the ORR. Riding a Suzuki GSX R1000 sports bike with his cousin Ajmal as a pillion, he lost control of the bike. Ajmal succumbed to the injuries on the spot, while Ayaz passed away after five days while hospitalised.
Senior Congress leader Komatireddy Venkat Reddy’s son Prateek Reddy also lost his life on the ORR. Returning from CBIT college with two friends, they allegedly met with an accident due to overspeeding, and Prateek lost his life on the spot.
