Unsafe roads: Hyderabad sees rise in traffic violations, accident deaths

Hyderabad: Hyderabad city saw a rise in traffic violations and deaths due to accidents in 2021. The city reported 25,43,897 traffic violations in the first six months of this year. This is an increase from the 20,65,722 violations reported in the same period last year.

A majority of the traffic violation case, around 71,440, are related to driving on the wrong side followed by 52,069 cases of triple riding. Around 35,201 cases involve driving without a license. Cases of minor driving also increased from 1,028 in 2020 to 1,338 in 2021.

Deaths in road accidents

This year the city saw 134 deaths in road accidents, an increase from 105 in the first six months of 2020. In 2019, it was around 137 cases. It is pertinent to note that in 2020, the city was under lockdown for a long period due to COVID-19.

Around 39 pedestrians lost their lives in 2021. The numbers were 32 in 2020 and 53 in 2019. The highest number of deaths were reported in February (36) followed by 29 in April and 20 in March.

Over-speeding was the major cause of deaths in road accidents where 95 deaths occurred due to over-speeding, six due to drunk driving and eight due to driving on the wrong side. Three deaths were due to minor driving, 15 due to negligent driving, and two deaths were reported in accidents caused by stray dogs jumping in front of vehicles.

Accident-prone areas

Six deaths occurred along the Hyderabad Public School-Prakash Nagar stretch, four along the Tadbun crossroad-Zoo Park stretch, four deaths at Malakpet Gunj road, four along MJ Market-Ajanta Gate stretch, and three deaths at Alwal Rythu Bazar road.

Based on the accident data of 2020, the Hyderabad traffic police have identified 50 "black spots" and taken measures to prevent accidents.

The city traffic police also carried out joint inspections along with stakeholders like GHMC/CRMP, R&B, NHAI, and Cantonment. Various corrective measures have been taken up at many black spots and accident-prone areas.

Measures to prevent road mishaps

The Hyderabad traffic police conducted various awareness programs on road safety. It launched a traffic awareness initiative, "T - 20 Traffic Awareness Test APP", at Hyderabad Traffic Police Complex, Nampally, to create awareness about traffic rules among youth to reduce road accidents.

It launched novel road safety initiatives, "Traffic Farishtey", and released three short films on road safety. Though it could not conduct awareness drives in educational institutes as they were shut down due to the pandemic, the traffic police continued their initiatives on social media.