Rajahmundry: As many as 38 deaths were reported while 133 persons sustained injuries out of a total number of 146 road accidents registered on National and State Highways from January 1 to March 31 in the Rajahmundry urban police district limits.
According to the data generated by the urban police for three months in 2019, APSRTC buses, private buses, lorries, tractors, light motor vehicles, two-wheelers, three-wheelers and others were involved in accidents causing injuries to several people and the death of 38 persons.
In 2018, for the corresponding period January 1 to March 31, as many as 136 road accidents were reported in which 33 persons were killed and 166 persons sustained injuries. When the figures of 2019 were compared with 2018, the number of accidents and deaths had gone up while the number of injured persons had come down.
The authorities said that official apathy and lack of responsibility on the part of vehicle owners and drivers to comply with road safety norms resulted in increase in the number of persons killed.
The authorities also said that preoccupation with making arrangements for conduct of polls on April 11 also had its impact on law enforcing authorities prompting them to pay more attention on poll arrangements while ignoring their regular work.
Now, with the conduct of elections over, the authorities intend to concentrate more on regulation of vehicular traffic and compliance with road safety norms by the road users to bring down the number of road accidents.
Rajahmundry regional transport officer V. Siri Anand said, “We are going to pay more attention to bring down the increasing number of road accidents especially in the first three months in 2019 by initiating all necessary measures be it enforcement of law strictly and booking cases against those who flout road safety norms.”
