Next time when you drive around Ibrahimpatnam Ring Road, Seethammavaripadalu, NTR Circle, Ramavarappadu Ring and a few other areas, exercise caution as they have been identified as the most accident prone areas in the city.
Alarming it may sound, but the officials have identified 143 accident prone areas in the city, of these, 73 have been identified as moderately prone to accidents and 61 as low accident prone zones. All these statistics has earned Vijayawada the dubious distinction of highest accident occurrence when compared to other urban areas like Guntur, Rajahmundry and Visakhapatnam cities in the State.
In 2014, 1,648 accidents took place in the city way ahead than Visakhapatnam city, which registered 1,377 accidents. In other urban areas, 911 accidents occurred in Guntur urban, 608 accidents in Tirupati and 608 accidents in Rajahmundry.
In a bid to control the increasing the accidents in the city, traffic police have suggested different remedial measures. These include installation of 68 signals, 220 blinkers and 448 zebra lines and 398 sign boards at different localities to alert motorists.
They have also pitched for introducing the traffic management system on the lines of Hyderabad, which has surveillance cameras, synchronisation of signals to ensure better traffic coordination and strict monitoring.
But, installation of traffic signals and other facilities can be a challenging task for officials here as many roads, where encroachment has been a perennial problem, need to be widened. Even as the authorities is mulling wearing helmets mandatory for the motorists, officials are in a fix as to how to enforce it.
Traffic police suggest installation of 68 signals, 220 blinkers, laying of 448 zebra lines and putting up 398 sign boards to alert motorists
