With police turning the heat on traffic violators and drunk drivers, the accident rates in Cyberabad area are seeing a significant reduction, law enforcers claim.
Compared to the core city, Cyberabad is geographically more spread out, has wider roads with more vehicles. Even the average traffic speed is higher. Despite all these factors, the accidents here are going down, M. Shiva Prasad, DCP (Traffic) Cyberabad said.
While 1,224 people died due to road accidents in Cyberabad area in 2011, only 258 people lost their lives till April 15 this year, he pointed out. “There is a greater scope of vehicles getting involved in accidents in Cyberabad area as it has criss-crossing national and State highways, R&B and GHMC roads. But due to the relentless enforcement drives, the accidents, particularly fatal ones, have gone down,” he said.
Accidents on road happen due to three major reasons — engineering defects, lack of proper infrastructure and motorists’ disregard for traffic rules.
While rectifying engineering defects and providing infrastructure are ongoing processes, accidents can be reduced to a greater extent if motorists follow the traffic rules properly, a senior police officer said adding that mixing drinks and driving is a major reason for fatal accidents. “Once drunk, a person usually throws caution to the wind and takes a risk that he would otherwise avoid, putting himself and others at grave risk,” he explained.
To make the drive effective, the Cyberabad police is conducting it at random places and timings and this, along with the threat of being imprisoned is proving to be effective, the DCP said. Cyberabad police has booked 17,729 cases in 2012 and till April 15 this year, they have already booked 5,412 motorists for drink driving.
