Hyderabad: The number of road accidents that occur due to defective roads is high, according to a study carried out by doctors in the emergency wing of Osmania General Hospital, who evaluated road traffic injuries as fatal or non-fatal.
Road accidents are so common that they can be termed an epidemic of non-communicable disease. Almost 80 per cent of the accidents evaluated showed that the collision between the two vehicles occurred due to the bad condition of the road.
As many as 60 per cent of accidents occurred because of bad weather and over 50 per cent because one party driving on the wrong side of the road.
Dr S M Abhilash, emergency and critical care specialist, said, “In more than 80 per cent of the cases it is found that safety aspects are not followed like helmet is not worn and in cars, the seat belt is not used. These are basic flaws we see regularly despite so much of awareness being created among the people to follow these simple rules.”
A total of 1,158 road traffic accidents were evaluated and the study has found that 88.6 per cent of the victims were males and 11.4 per cent were females.
The largest number of victims, 52 per cent, were in the age group of 16 to 30 years. The highest number of accidents — 77 per cent — involved two-wheelers, with 898 people injured. In these cases 43 per cent of the victims fell off the moving vehicle and 20 per cent of them died as a result of the injuries they sustained. Seven per cent of accidents involved pedestrians who were knocked down by vehicles.
Collision between two vehicles covered 18 per cent of the cases surveyed. Overturning were 7 per cent and hitting a stationary vehicle comprised 11 per cent of the cases.
Dr R. Chakrabarty, junior doctor in the emergency wing says, “Consuming alcohol and driving has been found to be the cause in most of the cases that are coming to the hospital. The effect of alcohol is evident as often the person does not even realise that he is injured.”
