Telangana Grapples with Deadly Speeding Crisis, Authorities Struggle to Enforce

As of November 13th, 2025, Telangana continues to grapple with a deadly speeding crisis on its roads. According to data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MORTH), overspeeding was responsible for 72.4% of road accidents in 2022 across India. In Telangana specifically, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reported that speeding and rash driving claimed 6,720 lives in 2023, accounting for a staggering 88.7% of the state's total road accident fatalities.

Despite the urgent need for stricter enforcement and higher penalties to curb this dangerous trend, traffic police in Hyderabad, Cyberabad, and Rachakonda commissionerates have struggled to effectively monitor and penalize speeding offenders. While speed guns have been deployed on major highways and expressways, the officers admit they lack the manpower to check every single violation. Instead, they focus on cracking down on drunk driving, helmet-less riding, and wrong-side driving.

Experts argue that the root cause of the speeding problem lies in the poor design of Telangana's roads. Urban transport specialist Prashant Bachu notes that the roads have been "widened indiscriminately," leading to a lack of lane discipline and encouraging motorists to drive at dangerously high speeds. He suggests that making speed guns more visible to commuters could help influence driver behavior and encourage them to slow down.