Hyderabad: Wrong side driving goes on unabated

Hyderabad: Driving on the wrong side has become a common practice. About 1.57 lakh cases were booked till October in 2019 for wrong side driving in the city, as compared to 1.27 lakh cases booked in 2018 and 40,510 cases in 2017.

According to a report by Hyderabad Traffic Police, around 29,301 more cases were registered against wrong side driving compared to last year. Trimulgherry, SR Nagar, Punjagutta, Falaknuma, Sultan Bazar, Asif Nagar Malakpet and Kacheguda are the areas where a higher number of violations were reported. This year alone, 136 people have lost their lives in road accidents and 1,313 have been injured till June 2019. This number is bound to increase by the end of this year

Speaking to The Hans India, Anil Kumar, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) said, "U-turns are the main reason for the wrong side driving. Many take a short cut to avoid the distance and to save time but it has in most cases cost precious lives."

Maximum violations are by autos and two-wheelers and happen during evening peak hours. There have been cases where wrong side driving has led to fatal accidents. "In order to control this menace, we have been conducting various awareness programmes, sensitisation through Hyderabad Traffic Police social media sites and also traffic re-engineering measures via placing of bollards, cement blocks, signboards to prevent wrong side driving and a penalty of Rs 1,000 is imposed on traffic violators," added the senior official.