CM orders statewide 3rd party audit of all road accidents

Amaravati: Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday ordered a mandatory third-party audit of every road accident in Andhra Pradesh, directing officials to determine whether vehicle condition, driver behaviour or road-engineering flaws caused the crashes.

Reviewing the performance of the State Road Safety Council at the Secretariat, the Chief Minister expressed concern over 6,433 deaths in 15,462 accidents recorded this year. Officials informed him that one-third of accidents involve two-wheelers, while 53 per cent are self-accidents involving cars and motorcycles. Andhra Pradesh currently stands 8th nationally in road accidents.

Naidu asked officials to examine high fatality clusters in Nellore, Tirupati, Palnadu, Annamayya and Kakinada districts. He was told that 79 per cent of crashes are linked to over-speeding, while wrong-side driving accounts for three per cent and alcohol or mobile use for one per cent. National highways account for 42 per cent of accidents; state highways 21 per cent.

The Chief Minister ordered installation of speed governors in all transport vehicles and sought options for extending the mechanism to non-transport vehicles. He directed National Highways and R&B officials to install CCTV cameras every 500 metres to monitor speeds in real time. Transport officials were asked to link surveillance feeds to RTGS and establish a special vehicle-tracking control room.

He instructed officials to seize vehicles that repeatedly violate speed norms. Naidu also ordered rapid rectification of 680 black spots on national highways along with repair of road signage, pedestrian markings and crash-barrier systems. Driving training centres in Darshi and Adoni must be completed quickly, he said.

Naidu directed strict action against unauthorised alterations, especially in sleeper buses, stating that violations under the bus-building code worsen accident severity. Officials reported that 134 illegally modified buses with All-India Tourist Permits had already been seized.