Hyderabad: Police says that the number of deaths in Saturday’s accident on the Rajiv Rahadari would not have been so high if the SUV did not have so many passengers.
A total of 18 persons belonging to two families, including nine children, were travelling in the SUV at the time of the accident. Nine of the 13 dead in the accident were travelling in the SUV, which has a maximum seating capacity of nine.
This is not the first time that more passengers are packed into vehicles travelling on the highways. Most private vehicles and on some occasions even RTC buses carry passengers than the vehicles are rated for.
“There is no proper mechanism to curb this violation. As long as they reach the destination, they are safe. But the question arises only when such incidents happen. There is no particular person or agency or department to be blamed for such violations. Everyone should have their own discipline for safe travel,” said a senior police official from Siddipet.
After the incident, the Siddipet police said they were drawing plans to conduct checks on the highway to control overloading of passengers in the vehicles.
“We hope this will not only control the violation, but passengers will be safe,” said the official.
The Rajadhani AC bus had 42 passengers and two crew. Usually the Rajadhani and Super Luxury buses do not exceed the seating capacity as the seats are reserved in advance. Express and Pallevelugu services often exceed the capacity.
