Road accidents register a dip in 2019 in Telangana

The fatalities in road accidents across the State registered a dip in 2019 compared to last year.

Till November this year, a total of 5,539 people died while 20,060 of them sustained injuries in 19,538 accidents. However in 2018 up to November, as many as 5,985 people lost their lives while 21,818 of them sustained injuries in 20,325 accidents.

A majority of the accidents took place in Cyberabad, Rachakonda, Warangal, Medak, and, Sangareddy among other areas. Officials attribute the dip in fatalities and road accidents to a series of initiatives taken up for the safety of pedestrians and motorists.

Concerned over increasing number of fatalities in 2018, the police along with the Roads and Buildings department (R&B), Transport Department and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) focused on improving road conditions and identified the ‘black spots’ where accidents frequently took place.

“We rectified the black spots after identifying them to prevent accidents in future. At the



same time, defects in road engineering were also resolved,” said R&B Engineer-in-Chief P Ravinder Rao.

Apart from notifying the speed limits on the stretches, the penalty for violating the speed limit was also enhanced to reduce loss of lives, he said.

The State government has successfully completed a pilot project with the financial assistance of the World Bank on Hyderabad- Bijapur corridor with Rs 28.66 crore. Under the project, ‘black spots’ were rectified, better enforcement work taken and awareness among road users created apart from ensuring proper trauma care facilities to the accident victims.

Plans have been chalked out to implement a similar project across the State for better results. According to officials, road safety awareness was made mandatory for all those attending a learner’s license test and driving test tracks were established in all districts for testing the candidates scientifically for issuing driving license, officials added.