Cyberabad Traffic DCP Avinash Mohanty is among those few traffic police officers who spend close to three to five hours a day on roads as part of their duty. This, he believes, gives him first-hand information about commuters’ problems, traffic snarls and practical difficulties faced by policemen in traffic management.
Minor changes in road engineering and flow of traffic he had introduced on some stretches in Kukatpally and Madhapur have given some respite to commuters. He replies to queries about road accidents in Cyberabad.
Q: What are the reasons behind growing number of accidents, deaths and injured persons in Cyberabad?
A: More accidents are reported on stretches on the Vijayawada Highway, Sagar Road, Warangal Road Mumbai Highway. Parts of roads in Rajendranagar, too, are accident-prone. Over-speeding and inability to use wide roads responsibly seem to be the main factors. Wide roads encourage speed driving. Often, it is noticed that drivers dozing off is causing accidents. Defective road engineering, too, is a reason.
Q: What plans do you have to bring down the accident rate and ensure public safety?
A: ‘S’ curves were introduced at points where internal roads join highways since these centres turned out to be accident-prone. Keeping barricades at these areas forces vehicle drivers to slow down and control accidents. Gaps on medians - some left by the road-laying authorities and others created by people - were closed.
Q: Is poor infrastructure to blame or human error causing more accidents?
A: Cannot say precisely, but surely factors like bad roads alone cannot be blamed for fatal accidents. In fact, drivers slow down if the roads are pot-holed and bad. This doesn’t cause more accidents. But careless driving and over-speeding, be on the part of victims or accused, are killing people.
Q: What can be done to check accidents on ORR?
A: Percentage of fatalities in accidents on ORR is high, nearly 50 per cent. It is close to 30 per cent on other roads. We tied up with the HMDA to introduce five patrolling vehicles on ORR. It is found that mostly moving vehicles rammed parked ones on ORR. The HMDA is also providing us speed guns to check high-speed driving on ORR.
Q: How can people help in checking accidents?
A: Follow simple road usage norms like not jumping signals. Drive responsibly. Use indicators and go slow while turning.
