Road accidents have become so common that people seem to be taking them as a fact of life in the twin cities.
But if one goes by statistics, it emerges that they are the single biggest cause for the increasing number of deaths of youngsters. More than 35 per cent of the victims are in the age group of 15-30.
According to the Traffic Police, between Jan 2009 and June 2012, 3,472 of the 9713 accident victims were from this age group.
If one narrows down further, around 30 per cent of the victims in fact were from the age group of 20-30. “They go for joy rides and have the tendency to race, whenever they feel like it,” points out Addl.Commissioner of Police (Traffic) CV Anand.
Another official from the department, who did not wish to be named, explained that the stats also a reveal a disturbing trend: The number of youngsters dying in accidents has been multiplying fast in the last few years.
Another fact further strengthens this argument. Except in 2010, the highest number of accidents usually occurred on Sundays in the last three-and-a-half years. The police say this only indicates that to a large extent, these Sunday fatalities occur due to joy rides. Overall, the Sunday accidents accounted for 15 per cent of the fatalities in the last few years.
PVS, Ramakrishna, DCP (traffic), explains that the police have on their part increased vigilance and are strictly enforcing the drives against rash driving and drunken driving to minimise the number of accidents.“We are concentrating on repeat violators. Drunken driving cases are higher on Friday nights, and weekends. More focus is also being kept on triple riding,” he says.
Another interesting point is that 58 per cent of the vehicles involved in accidents are either two or four-wheelers. In numbers, around 5643. Out of that, 2822 (29 percent) were fourwheelers, and 2821 (29 percent) two-wheelers.
Though the RTC is by and large very safe, surprisingly, it comes third in this list.
RTC buses were found to be involved in 10 per cent of the 9713 accidents since 2009.
“Most of the bus drivers are not welltrained, and we also conducted a training programme for bus drivers.
Even APSRTC is trying to bring the numbers down,” CV Anand says referring to the drivers of private vehicles.
What about pedestrians who bear the brunt of the rash and negligent drivers? Since 2009, 3583 pedestrians – almost 37 per cent of all the accident victims – lost their lives.
The top slot goes to those with two-wheelers. They comprise 45 per cent of all victims. If one goes by the hourly statistics provided by the Traffic Police, 101 accidents occur on an average in Hyderabad.
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