Black Spots, Broken Promises Raising Road Fatalities in Nellore District

Nellore: Year after year, ghastly accidents on national and state highways are continuing to claim hundreds of lives in SPSR Nellore district. Yet, measures to prevent these tragedies have been slow and half-hearted. Corrective attempts are like a snail’s crawl. There is noise after tragedies, without improvements thereafter.

According to Transport Department’s data, there had been 933 accidents in 2022, leading to 391 deaths and 1,007 injuries. In 2023, 902 accidents claimed 417 lives and left 1,040 injured. Such tolls have become a grim reminder of systemic apathy.

The district’s most comprehensive road safety initiative came in 2018, when the then SP P.H.D. Ramakrishna launched a black spot survey after a disturbing spurt in mishaps that year: 229 deaths and 675 injuries.

Ramakrishna’s survey identified 221 black spots—locations notorious for repeated crashes—across 491 km of the national highways, 683 km of state highways, and 7,630 km of panchayat raj and R&B roads. With the help of Road Safety Programme (RSP) mobile app, police flagged 65 black spots on NH-16 alone.

However, corrective work could be completed at just 16 sites before things fizzled out after Ramakrishna’s transfer. Since then, the initiative has languished. No similar exercise had been undertaken until June 16, 2025, when Endowments minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy flagged a dangerous junction on NH-67 (Hubli-Krishnapatnam Road), which intersects with SH-335. At the time, two accidents had occurred at the same place, killing three and injuring 10.

Ramanarayana Reddy wrote to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), demanding that the junction be declared a black spot, with commissioning of speed breakers, signage and lighting. Thereafter, a joint inspection by NHAI, Police, Transport, R&B, Revenue and Panchayat Raj departments followed.

But even before any measures could be taken, tragedy struck again. Seven people died on Wednesday near Peramana village, close to Sangam, on the same NH-67 stretch. A furious minister expressed his anger at officials for failing to expedite corrective works despite his earlier warning.

Over-speeding and overloading have been identified as the prime causes. Immediate steps like speed-limit indicators, road markings and awareness campaigns have been promised.

Citizens want vehicular underpass at Chintareddypalem junction

Nellore: Residents of Nellore have long been demanding a vehicular underpass (VUP) at Chintareddypalem junction on NH-16 near Medicover Hospital, one of the notorious accident zones in the city. Over the past five years, nine lives have been lost and 70 injured at the busy entry point to the city.

Significantly, the VUP had been included in a package sanctioned in 2022. NHAI dropped the VUP for reasons known only to it, while retaining similar projects elsewhere.

However, persistent lobbying by MP Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy with union Highways minister Nitin Gadkari has led to ordering of a Detailed Project Report. For now, the risk for residents remains every time they cross the Chintareddypalem junction.

Unsafe parking on highways accounts for 25–30 per cent of fatal accidents, officials themselves have admitted. Plans are underway to set up designated parking and driver rest areas, with toilets, water, canteens and security. One such facility has been completed and more in the pipeline.

But black spot corrections remain stalled. Senior citizens like C.V. Lakshmi Narasimham have urged the government to treat road safety as equivalent to crime prevention. “Hundreds are dying in accidents compared to two-digit figures in crimes,” he pointed out, underlining the need for urgent action.

Unless inter-departmental coordination improves and corrective works are executed on a war footing, Nellore’s highways may continue to be death traps. The message from citizens is clear: road safety cannot wait for the next tragedy to jolt the officialdom into action.