In Hyderabad, cars topped the ‘killer’ list of vehicles in 2007, followed by motorcycles and three-wheelers. Based on statistics, four-wheelers turned out to be the most ‘killer’ vehicles this year. Cars have been accounted to forty-one lives snuffed and 990 individuals injured in 841 accidents beginning January 1 to October 31 of 2007.

In 2006, 50 deaths and injuries to 1,132 people were registered as hit by cars. Back in 2005, 23 deaths and injuries to 950 people were recorded.

There are varying reasons for the accidents: some occurred due to careless driving and others were due to bad roads. There are also instances where under-aged youngsters were found driving the cars in accidents. Drunk driving is also a big factor.

Police officers believe that an absolute lack of traffic sense among motorists is to be blamed. According to Additional DCP (Traffic), G. Sampath Kumar Reddy, “Everyone on the roads these days is in a hurry.” Cars tend to contribute to traffic chaos at intersections. “A car occupies almost three metres space and one can image the situation on the busy Begumpet – Punjagutta route in peak hours. Ironically, only one or two persons travel in them,” he said.

Nowadays, three lakh four-wheeler vehicles are present on the roads. Also, 30 to 40 cars are being registered everyday in the twin cities.

Here is the complete list of ‘killer’ vehicles up to October 2007, provided with the number of accidents, the dead and the injured:

1. Cars – 841 – 41 – 990
2. Motorcycles – 723 - 41 – 753
3. Three-wheelers – 305 – 24 – 330
4. RTC buses – 236 – 66 – 221
5. Lorries – 200 – 54 – 199
6. Unknown vehicles – 185 – 58 – 150
7. DCMs – 99 – 11 – 111
8. Heavy transport vehicles – 44 – 11 – 39
9. Tempo/trolleys – 28 – 1 – 30
10. Private Buses – 27 – 5 – 26
11. 7-seater autos – 18 – 2 – 19
12. Tankers – 13 – 5 – 8
13. School buses – 4 – 2 – 4
14. Other vehicles – 4 – 2 – 3
15. Mopeds – 2 – 0 – 3
16. Setwin buses – 2 – 2

Total Accidents – 2,731
Total Dead – 323
Total Injured – 2,888