: The private bus that met with an accident at Gollapudi on Monday night was operating with a fictitious name of ‘Dhanunjaya Travels.’ Five persons, including four students from Osmania Medical College, were killed and several others injured in the accident.
The bus (AP28 TB 1166) shows the initial registration date of 2009 and it is registered in the name of Akbar Khan, a resident of Bahadurpura in Hyderabad. “There is no private transport company operating anywhere in Andhra Pradesh with the name ‘Dhanunjaya Travels,’” confirmed Deputy Transport Commissioner (in charge), Krishna, M. Purendra on Tuesday. The vehicle is on the rolls of the Hyderabad south zone of the transport wing, he said, adding: “observing the vehicle, it looks like the driver was driving the vehicle at120-140 kmph speed,” he said.
Sources in the Transport Department say it is possible that the bus belonged to Dhanunjaya Travels in the past and the new owner did not bother to remove the sticker and the name board. .
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Despite best efforts by the transport authorities to inculcate safe driving sense among drivers, road accidents keep occurring at regular intervals.
Operators of private vehicles and the crew come under flak whenever there is a road accident of this magnitude. But after the hullaballoo dies down, the practice of flouting norms continues.
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Statistics available with the Transport Department on road accidents trigger serious concern. In Andhra Pradesh, Krishna district alone witnessed 496 road accidents which claimed the lives of 118 people and left 591 persons injured in the first two months of this year.
Incidentally,
The Krishna District Lorry Owners’ Association is all set to flag off ‘I Am a Safe Driver,’ a training programme for auto-rickshaw drivers to inculcate safe driving. Mr. Purendra, along with DCP Nagaraju, will launch the programme on Wednesday.