AP High Court Flags 'Abnormally High' Motor Vehicle Accidents, Says It Reflects Lack Of Policing

While hearing a PIL highlighting serious shortcomings in the implementation of provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act and Rule 167A of the Central Motor Vehicles (Seventeenth Amendment) Rules, 2021 (the Rules)-- which envisages the enforcement of road safety through electronic devices, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has pulled up the State authorities for failing to take effective measures to curb traffic violations and the rising number of resulting accidents.An affidavit submitted by the Deputy Inspector of Police highlighted that in 2024, the NTR District recorded 706 two-wheeler accidents resulting in 243 deaths, followed by Guntur with 654 accidents and 258 deaths, Visakhapatnam with 600 accidents and 172 deaths, and lastly East Godavari, which saw 200 deaths.Expressing concern over these alarming figures, a Division Bench of Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Ravi Cheemalapati observed,“These are abnormally high figures and reflect lack of policing in the said area. We, therefore, direct the Director General of Police to take immediate steps for ensuring deployment of more police personnel to check the traffic violations so that the numbers which are alarming at present see a progressive decline in future.”“We believe that the fatality rate can be brought down drastically if those at the helm of affairs especially those concerned with the management of traffic in the police organization take a very active role in the entire scheme of things”, the Division Bench added.On 02.04.2025, the Court had directed the Deputy Inspector of Police to submit an affidavit stating whether the 14770 CCTV cameras installed in the State could be used for checking violations on account of non-use of protective headgear.The affidavit thus submitted highlighted that the CCTV cameras had not been integrated with the automatic detection technology which checks violations such as non-use of headgear, wrong side driving, no parking, automatic number plate recognition, speeding and triple riding.The Court therefore impleaded the A.P State Fiber Net Limited, which is the implementing agency for integration and maintenance of existing and new CCTV surveillance system, as a party respondent.The Court also noted that the DGP had requested an amount of Rs.8,43,93,316/- from the State Government for implementation of traffic control measures. Regarding this, it was observed,“The said amount is necessary for preventing loss of human lives, which, according to the data furnished to us has risen to approximately 8346 throughout the State of Andhra Pradesh. The money would be spent on spreading the message on the precautions to be taken. It is important to spread the message through the print and electronic media in all 26 Districts throughout the year which would require the requisite finance.”The Court therefore directed the Chief Secretary to take a decision on the sanction of the amount within a period of ten days.Additionally, regarding the imposition of fines and recovery, the affidavit highlighted that out of 980787 challans, only 618570 had been realised. The Court thus observed,“We feel that it would be of no use if hitech machinery is installed by spending Crores on integration of the systems to record violations if the challans remained unexecuted and the fine not realized from the violators. The provisions of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 and in particular Rule 167 could be resorted to against the violators in this regard which action has not been taken by the respondent authorities.” The Court lastly directed the State to place on record how the mandate of Section 167A with regard to use of body and dashboard cameras by police agencies has been complied with.That case is now listed on 20.08.2025.Case Details:Case Number: WP(PIL) NO: 116 of 2024Case Title: Thandava Yogesh and other Vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh and othersClick Here To Read/Download Order

AP High Court Flags 'Abnormally High' Motor Vehicle Accidents, Says It Reflects Lack Of Policing

Saahas Arora

Tags