Fatalities on Mahbubnagar roads all-time high

Mahbubnagar: While on one hand, highways are becoming the death traps for the motorists due to over speeding and erroneous driving without taking any kind of safety precautions, on the other, some of the roads have gone from bad to worst rendered with innumerable number of potholes due to which large number of commuters are prone to accidents losing their precious lives.

There are three major National Highways and a large number of state highways passing through Mahbubnagar connecting the district with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and various other districts adjoining it, however, every year the number of accidents on these roads is increasing because of which hundreds of people are killed and many more are injured severely.

In the erstwhile Mahbubnagar district, as per an estimate every year 1,500 to 1,600 accidents are occurring due to which about 800 to 9,00 people are killed and more than 2,000 people are severely injured. The main cause of these accidents is either over speed or rash driving or drunken driving. Whatever may be the cause, ultimately the end result is loss of precious lives “Major reason for the increased deaths in road accidents is that motorists are not taking safety precautions.

Particularly, the two-wheelers and car drivers must use helmets and seat belts or else the consequences will be loss of precious lives. Just take the instance of recent accident in Nalgonda where the prominent film actor Nandamuri Harikrishna, had he worn the seat belt he would have saved his life,” observed Srinivas Reddy Motor Vehilce inspector, Mahbubnagar.

Another traffic inspector Amarnath in Mahabubnagar said that these days car drivers and various other large vehicle owners, in spite of repeated reminders to keep the speed under control, they are crossing the limit more than 100 kmph and because of over speed when there is any sudden incident comes in the way the driver fails to control the vehicle and it gets skidded and sometimes somersaults causing grave head injuries and deaths for the car drivers.

“Normally on a 4-lane highway, the normal speed for cars is 100 km per hour, for two-wheelers, busses and lorries they should not cross more than 80 kilometres per hour and autos are restricted to 60 km per hour, however, in contrast to these speed limits, the motorists are crossing these limits and because of excess speed, it causes accidents and ultimately deaths and irreversible health hazards,” observed Amarnath Reddy, while explaining the major causes of accidents.

The road safety experts termed that while driving the drivers must not indulge in phone talking or some other communication which will diver their attention from the road. “For an alert driver, it takes 1.5 seconds to detect a problem while driving and tries to avert the accident, however for a drunkard or a person who is under the influence of sleep it takes 4-5 seconds to detect the accident and by that time the damage who have already happened,” observed the Motor Vehicle inspector.