Fatal accidents on Hyderabad roads drop by 50%

Hyderabadis, you can finally heave a sigh of relief, as not all roads of the city lead to Yamraj! No, the chances of you meeting with an accident on city roads are just as high as before. but thankfully, the number of fatalities caused by road accidents has reduced by 50 per cent. What’s more, in 2017, Hyderabad has seen the least number of fatal accidents when compared to the last five years.
According to data released by

Hyderabad Traffic Police

, the number of accidents leading to death in the year 2017 stand at 288. That’s a huge improvement from 400 — the annual average for fatal accidents for the past five years.
“Hyderabad city records about 2,500 accidents annually. While there has been no dip in those numbers yet, the number of “We had 83 black spots in the city which were catalysts to increasing the chances of accidents. Since these have been removed, with road widening initiatives, traffic islands and closure of U-Turns and junctions, we have achieved lessened accident rates,” adds DCP Ranganath.
Introduction of pelican signals, which indicate when the pedestrians can cross, also helped reduce accidents. Take for instance, the pelican traffic signal at

Mehdipatnam

junction, which turned out to be a boon for pedestrians. The junction, which has over 300 persons crossing every minute, was regulated with the help of pelican signals, inform officials.
Mistakes made, lessons learnt
The traffic police have learnt their lessons the hard way, some would say, as it took two catastrophic accidents to get some of these much-needed changes underway. At Jubliee hills and Banjara hills, one of fastest corridors in the city limits, it took the deaths of Nishith Narayana, an AP minister’s son and Ramya, a seven-year-old girl, to initiate corrective action. Authorities inform they have now installed ‘rumbler strips’
to cut off the speed at these problematic spots.
the closure of junctions and increasing the number of U-turns have also helped. “The chances of collisions of vehicles have reduced. But some of these newly formed U-Turns are not wide enough to allow seamless passing of large vehicles and busses. Some more work needs to be done on that,” informs S Adishankar, secretary,

Roadkraft

.
Pedestrians still get the raw deal
Hyderabad roads can be a nightmare for those on foot, and with the coming of the metro, walking is only set to increase. While 2017 saw traffic islands at Tarnaka, Mettuguda and a few other junctions, it also saw the metro medians rob away pedestrians’ ease of crossing. “How do they expect us to cross roads where the medians are as high as 3 feet with plants filling them. We have only two options — to either cross over these high medians or walk on busy roads with no footpaths, both of which are equally dangerous,” says Anju Nair, a commuter. Experts note that matters get worse in areas with high pedestrian crossing like near Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, where the lack of any gaps within the central medians is endangering lives of the pedestrians.
However, metro authorities say, while compromises have been made on road crossings, the metro stations themselves act as foot overbridges, which can be accessed without purchasing tickets. But experts are skeptical. “Using metro as a foot overbridge is possible only if the station is on the middle of the road. If it is on the side, it can’t be used. So at places like Parade ground, which is so heavy on pedestrian traffic, it is of no use. Moreover, Hyderabad is not accustomed to using FOBs so we must invest more on zebra crossings,” adds Adishankar.
So while a lot more needs to be done, with the recent handing over of the subject to the Roads and Buildings department, experts feel road safety measures in the city are heading in the right direction. Previously it was managed by the transport department.
Fatalities have reduced dramatically. From 463 deaths in 2012 and 405 in 2016, we have come a long way to just 288 in 2017, which is great news,” says AV Ranganath, DCP, Hyderabad Traffic Police. So what worked in motorists’ favour? A lot more than plain luck, it seems.


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