Strict action planned against overspeeding commercial vehicles

Hyderabad authorities raised concerns over private buses and heavy vehicles violating safety norms by tampering with speed governors and overspeeding. The Transport Department plans stricter enforcement, including triple penalties, vehicle seizure, and permit cancellations to curb accidents and ensure compliance

Hyderabad: Rising accidents involving private buses and heavy goods vehicles have raised serious concerns over their fitness and safety compliance.

Police and Transport Department officials have concluded that most recent accidents were caused by rash driving and overspeeding more particularly by tampering the ‘speed governors’.

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Although speed governors are mandatory, many vehicle operators are allegedly removing them after fitness certification and driving at dangerous speeds.

The Transport Department is preparing to further tighten enforcement. Officials warned that heavy vehicles such as tippers found carrying loads beyond permissible limits will be seized, drivers’ licences will be cancelled, and permits will also be revoked in cases of repeated violations.

During inspections, officials found that while the Motor Vehicles Act caps the speed of commercial vehicles at 90 kmph, several were travelling at speeds of 130–140 kmph.

It also emerged that speed governors are installed only temporarily for fitness tests and removed later. Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar has directed officials to impose triple penalties on vehicles found operating without speed governors and to seize such vehicles if required.

Efforts to regulate night-time speeding using speed guns have yielded limited results, with more than half of the devices reportedly non-functional.