Hyderabad City sees 12 percent dip in fatal accidents

QUICK GLANCE…

♦    Road accidents reduced by 10 percent

♦    Pedestrian deaths reduced by 16 percent

♦    15,133 cases booked on drunken drivers

♦    2,864 drivers jailed

♦    More than Rs 3 crore fine amount collected

♦    929 driving licenses suspended/cancelled

♦    10, 684 commuters caught in cell phone driving

♦    19, 540 commuters jumped signals

♦    4,753 cases booked for carrying extra school children

♦    50 black spots identified to reduce road accidents

Hyderabad: City Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Anil Kumar said the city witnessed 12 per cent reduction in fatal road accidents in the first half year of 2019 due to which there is a decrease of 10 per cent in deaths in road accidents.

Addressing the media at Traffic Training Institute (TTI) in Goshamahal on Friday, Additional CP said the pedestrian deaths reduced by 16 per cent in the city compared to last year.

Since there has been a sustained growth in the number of vehicles over the past few years, especially after the city turned as an IT Hub, it became a challenge for the traffic department to take strict measures so that they can ensure smooth flow of around 61.48 lakh vehicles (as on June 30, 2019) both in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts.

The measures like enforcement against drunken driving, enforcement against life endangering violations resulting in road accidents, special drives, engineering steps and various corrective measures were taken up for road safety, rectification of black spots. All the measures ensured that the traffic personnel reach their goals and reduce road accidents and deaths.

Under enforcement against drunken driving, the police booked 15,133 cases, filed 14,161 charge sheets, jailed 2,864 drivers with 14 per cent increase in comparison with the previous two years.

More than Rs 3 crore fine amount was collected by court and 929 driving licenses suspended and cancelled in 2019. With the use of technology and high-end gadgets, evidence-based booking of violations, the rate of convictions against violators has increased.

Counselling is being given to each drunken driver in the presence of their parents, spouse and guardian at TTI's at Goshamahal and Begumpet which has contributed tremendously in reducing the road fatalities.

Special drives conducted on regular intervals to curb violations like without driving license, triple riding, wrong side driving, without registration number plate, wrong parking, cell phone driving, minor driving, dangerous driving, and signal jumping, without helmet also helped to bring down the accidents.

More than 10,000 drivers violated the rules by speaking on cell phones and more than 19,000 commuters violated signal jumping. By conducting special drives, 4,753 cases were booked for carrying extra school children.

Around 135 deaths occurred due to accidents in comparison with 150 deaths in 2018 with a reduction of 10 per cent. More than 1,300 commuters were injured and 53 pedestrian deaths (63 in 2018) occurred in the first half year of 2019.

Further, 50 black spots have been identified and efforts are continuing to take remedial measures to rectify these black spots and to reduce road accidents.