Hyderabad: Over-speeding is the single biggest reason for deaths on Telangana’s highways. Poor illumination and illegally parked vehicles also cause a large number of fatal mishaps. Animals crossing the road is another hazard; some 35 people were killed in 2015 when their vehicles hit animals and overturned. Poor weather conditions too cause accidents.
According to road safety experts, lack of speed governing techniques, governors on public vehicles, lack of cautionary signboards, and improperly designed connection roads prompt drivers to speed when there is little traffic on the roads.
Drivers are not aware of accident-prone areas since these are not marked.
Member of the Supreme Court-appointed committee on road safety and faculty of the Central Road Research Institute, Dr Nishi Mittal says that educating drivers and controlling them on roads using various techniques is necessary if over-speeding is to be curbed.
“The mishap-prone areas should be identified and rumble strips or speed breakers have to be installed there. Sign boards asking drivers to slow down and explaining the nature of the road (for example ‘curve ahead’) should be installed. Another way is to narrow down the roads when reaching the ‘black spots’ as that will compel drivers to slow down,” she said.
Poor visibility and poor illumination of roads also cause deadly mishaps. Records show that the 95 per cent total length of a road is not illuminated. Lights are installed only on roads in cities and major towns. Since it is not easy to illuminate thousands of kilometres, experts suggest that lights should be installed along mishap-prone areas.
Road safety in towns overlooked
Even though this is literally a matter of life and death, the State government and the Road Safety Authority have not paid much attention to road safety in places other than the capital city. Though private stakeholders had offered to help identity major black spots on the highways passing through other districts, their offer has been ignored.
Last year, TS chief secretary Dr Rajiv Sharma had sought proposals from National Highways Authority of India president Raghava Chandra to identify and rectify black spots and other accident-prone areas on various national highways in the state. The correspondence between NHAI and TS is still ongoing and nothing has been implemented so far even as lives continue to be lost.
