The Agency area of Visakhapatnam district is known for its pristine greenery, salubrious climate and serenity, coffee, and tourist locales. But, of late it has come under the radar of the district police for its growing rate of accidents on the ghat roads.
Since January 2015 to August 2016, there have been as many as 108 accidents which include 72 fatal cases.
The two main police circles in the Agency area, Paderu and Araku, witnessed high accident rate, according to Superintendent of Police Rahul Dev Sharma. Since January 2015 till the end of August, there have been 40 deaths in the Paderu circle and 32 in the Araku circle. While Paderu recorded about 220 cases of injuries, about 160 were injured in the Araku circle.
Causes
The primary cause for the rise in accidents is overloading of vehicles, while drunk driving, lack of adequate public transport and bad road connectivity are the other reasons.
Lack of proper public transport forces the natives of the Agency areas to board overcrowded private jeeps and tempos.
And if the capacity of the private vehicles is 10, the drivers take on board double the capacity. Most of the vehicles are overloaded with both passengers and goods, and drivers tend to overspeed on the dangerous ghat roads to account for more number of trips, says OSD (Narsipatnam) A. Babujee.
Lack of connectivity
Fewer number of public transport and lack of connectivity between villages force the tribal people to board private vehicles and most of the accidents occur due to the drivers losing control over the vehicle at sharp bends, says Mr. Sharma.
In the Visakhapatnam Agency that covers about 6,200 sq km., there are 3,637 tribal habitats and of which 1,136 villages are not connected by motorable roads. People tend to board the private transport vehicles to get in or get down at their desired points, and this has been the main cause for accidents, says Inspector of Koyyuru circle Mallikarjuna Rao. Overloading is not the only problem, in many cases drivers have lost control over the vehicles as they are drunk.
About 25 per cent of the accidents have occurred because of drunken driving and the enforcement of the police is weak , as the force is short-staffed and the primary duty is containing the left-wing extremism.
“The check on drunken driving is weak and even if the police try to enforce or dissuade the locals from boarding the private vehicles, the tribal people feel let down, as there is no other means of transport,” says Dora Babu, a resident of Koyyuru.
Topography
Topography is another reason for the spurt in accidents. The entire Agency area is covered by steep ghat roads that have many dangerous sharp bends. In many areas, the roads are in a bad shape and there is no lighting or reflectors for the drivers to have a proper understanding of the route.
“A majority of the drivers are not skilled and many even do not have driving licences. About 50 per cent of the accidents have occurred while negotiating the sharp bends,” says a police officer from the Araku circle.
