Speed, blind turns end with death@August Kranti Marg
Number of accidents on the rise; cops blame speeding, no plan to enforce traffic sense.
Five deaths in three separate road accidents in a week. August Kranti Marg in south Delhi, which connects ring road with outer ring road, is fast becoming an accident-prone stretch.
Though traffic police say reckless and fast driving coupled with the lack of precaution is behind most accidents, they are yet to draw an action plan to enforce road discipline.
Three people were killed in two accidents in a span of five hours on the road on Monday morning. In the first accident that took place around 1.30am, a technician at AIIMS rammed his Swift Dzire into a Honda City in which Bollywood star Fardeen Khan's 'half sister' Sonia Sethia was traveling. Both were killed.
Last Monday, a swift car near Gulmohar Park mowed down two pedestrians in the wee hours. The car belonged to an undersecretary in the ministry of home affairs and was being driven by the cleaner.
"Car accidents have become very common on this road. The traffic signals do not work at night and the colony roads have blind turns. The car collision in which two people were killed also happened because the traffic signals were not working," said Arun Singh, a security guard who saw both accidents.
Police claimed they had identified some dangerous stretches and separate plans would be made for each stretch to avoid such incidents.
Special CP (traffic) Sudhir Yadav the police were aware of the number of accidents on the stretch. "A plan will be prepared to avoid such accidents in future," he said.
Traffic officials said people had a tendency to speed at night. But hardly any policeman is seen on the road after sundown.
"Duty hours of traffic police personnel end at 2 at night. The presence of local police is less at night. Commuters generally do not mind jumping signals and breaking traffic rules at night. This leads to accidents," a senior traffic police official said.