Hyderabad: Telangana high court on Wednesday sought a responses from the state and central govts in a PIL seeking directions to initiate urgent measures to prevent road accidents. The petition alleged that poor road conditions, potholes, inadequate signage, defective engineering and weak enforcement were contributing to the rising number of fatalities. A division bench comprising Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin passed the direction while hearing the PIL filed by SQ Masood, a city-based social activist, and adjourned the matter for further hearing.Masood contended that Telangana recorded 25,934 road accidents and 7,281 deaths in 2024, compared with 19,164 accidents and 6,668 deaths in 2020. He said the figures showed a more than 35% increase in accidents during the period, while fatalities remained above 7,000 annually, including the deadly crash at Chevella, which had occurred allegedly due to a pothole on the highway, poor road design among several other factors.Masood claimed that the state had failed to effectively implement statutory road-safety mechanisms under the MV Act and sought a direction from the court declaring such inaction illegal and violative of constitutional mandate. He urged the court to direct a comprehensive road-safety audit of major roads, highways, the ORR and accident-prone stretches within three months, operationalise state and district road safety committees, enforce road-design and maintenance standards, and create a 24×7 mechanism for reporting road hazards with potholes rectified within 48 hours.He also sought regular safety and fitness checks of buses, GPS speed monitoring and CCTV, driver training, quarterly compliance reports from GHMC and the roads and buildings department, and personal accountability of officials whose dereliction contributed to fatal accidents. Further, as an interim relief, he sought emergency filling of dangerous potholes and repair of accident-prone stretches within seven days, besides dedicated patrolling on major roads and highways.