Be alert while walking on road, TSRTC tells pedestrians

Hyderabad: The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has urged citizens, particularly pedestrians, to always be alert while walking on roads, as it is observed that buses are prone to accidents because of negligent behaviour and careless attitude of some pedestrians not taking minimum precautions.

According to TSRTC, this fiscal year till February, as many as 283 people died in road accidents; 71 of them were pedestrians. Over 25 per cent of those who died due to road accidents were pedestrians. The RTC said the officials conducted a thorough investigation into the nature of accidents which revealed that pedestrians die in road accidents due to lack of proper understanding of traffic rules.

TSRTC chairman and MLA Bajireddy Govardhan said "the RTC is taking all measures to prevent road accidents. Special training was given to around 4,000 rental bus drivers recently. To prevent road accidents, safety wardens have been appointed at every depot. But RTC buses are prone to road accidents due to small mistakes made by pedestrians knowingly or unknowingly. These accidents are caused by carelessness," he added.

TSRTC MD VC Sajjanar said statistics show one out of every five victims of road accidents in the country is a pedestrian. He said 15 - 20 per cent of pedestrians die in these accidents. "Pedestrians are advised to increase their self-awareness on traffic rules".