It is not just bad roads, inadequately-lit thoroughfares or drink driving that are causing road accidents. Canines and cattle too have become a potential threat for motorists, especially in the suburbs and in the Secunderabad Cantonment area.
Earlier this month, V. Hanumanth from Mehdipatnam succumbed to injuries after his motorcycle hit a stray dog which darted across the road suddenly. The 29-year old electronics engineer fell off the bike and sustained serious head injuries leading to his death, the police said.
It is not an isolated case. On November 5, B. Prakash (48), a resident of L. B. Nagar died after sustaining injuries while avoiding a stray dog on Bairamlaguda road. His motorcycle skidded while Prakash applied sudden brakes to avoid hitting a canine. The salesman succumbed to injuries two days later while undergoing treatment.
Motorists, especially those riding two-wheelers on the city outskirts and the cantonment area, acknowledge the canine/bovine menace as a major problem during the night time as it is difficult to sight them from far.
Mohd. Hafeez Khan (45), a businessman from Falaknuma who encountered a bad experience with canines says, “I fell off the bike after a pack of stray dogs chased me on the Bandlaguda road. My right forearm was fractured in the accident and doctors had to operate upon it and implant a rod.”
No separate record
The police treat all these cases as road accidents and maintain no separate record. “Instances of stray dogs and cattle becoming a cause of accidents have increased especially in view of an increase in night-time traffic on the city outskirts,” a police official says.
Of course, some fingers are also pointed at the GHMC policy of releasing stray dogs back to their habitat after sterilising them under the Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme.
“Our teams catch stray dogs and cattle whenever we receive complaints from the public. After sterilisation, the canines are released back to their habitat according to the rules,” says a GHMC official.
