Rise in bus accidents

The number of Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation buses involved in accidents has been on a steady rise.

According to the data available, there were 285 cases of accidents in the city involving APSRTC drivers till date this year as against 251 in 2010. Compared to 2010, road accidents involving corporation buses have increased by 2.4 per cent in 2012. In 2012, the state buses were responsible for 88 deaths and 233 people getting injured.

There are allegations that the accidents have gone up because of the number of temporary drivers with not enough experience being hired by the APSRTC.

C.V. Anand, Additional Commissioner of Police, said: “Taking the matter into cognizance, we have organised a training programme for 12,000 RTC drivers this year.”

However, A. Koteshwar Rao, Executive Director of Greater Hyderabad Zone, APSRTC said: “The drivers we hire have at least three years of experience in driving heavy vehicles. We put them through three months of rigorous training before putting them on the roads.”

The increase in accident percentage is marginal when compared to the operational fleet increase and increase in distance covered by buses in these years, he added.

Mr. Koteshwar Rao said: “Our fleet in 2010 was 3,000 whereas it has now increased to 3,800; our buses used to cover about 7 lakh km per day in 2010 whereas it has now gone up to 10 lakh km per day.”

Rao said most of the accidents were due to negligence of both the victims and the accused.