41 deadly accident spots identified on Mumbai-Goa highway

Navi Mumbai: Fifteen days after 10 members of a family were killed in a head-on collision with a truck on Mumbai-Goa Highway, the police have identified 41 potential accident spots and found several loopholes on the highway, such as missing signages for road diversions

Navi Mumbai: Fifteen days after 10 members of a family were killed in a head-on collision with a truck on Mumbai-Goa Highway, the police have identified 41 potential accident spots and found several loopholes on the highway, such as missing signages for road diversions.

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The Raigad police have asked the respective contractors to put up sign boards indicating the diversions within 24 hours to curb accidents. It must be noted that the truck driver who entered the road from the wrong side and collided head-on with the Maruti Eeco car, claimed that he did not see the sign board. Therefore, police officials have specifically asked contractors to put up radium reflectors and blinkers wherever necessary.

“As of now, we have figured around 41 spots and the contractors have been asked to make the diversion boards within 24 hours. The truck that killed 10 people, had no fitness certificate as well, hence, the truck was not supposed to be on the road in the first place. We have also asked the contractors to put radium reflectors and blinkers wherever necessary,” said Raigad superintendent of police, Somnath Gharge.

The Mumbai-Goa highway cuts through the jurisdictions of different police stations. These police stations were asked to carry out a survey following the accident on January 19. The survey revealed that under the Wadkhal police station, there are two spots which have no diversion point sign board, blinkers or red radium reflectors. Similarly, Nagothane has five, Kolad has ten, Mangaon has five, Goregaon has ten, Mahad City has one, Mahad Taluka has three and Mahad MIDC has five spots.

In the year 2021 alone, 47 people were killed on the Mumbai-Goa Highway, while in 2022, 58 were killed. A total of 154 accidents were reported under the jurisdiction of Raigad police on the Mumbai-Goa Highway in 2021. Of these, 46 accidents killed 47 people, 49 accidents seriously injured 78, a total of 71 people received minor injuries in 23 accidents and 36 accidents didn’t cause any injuries. Meanwhile, in 2022, there was an increase of accidents by 12% and a total of 172 accidents were registered of which 58 accidents were fatal that killed 49, 140 seriously injured 83 people, 46 accidents gave minor injuries to 15 people and there were no injuries reported in 25 accidents.

Last Sunday, villagers from several villages across the Konkan region including Ratnagiri, Khed, Mahad, Mangaon and Poladpur conducted a protest on Mumbai-Goa highway, to voice their demand that contractors should be held liable for the accidents and booked.

“An offence under Section 302 of IPC should be registered against the officials responsible for looking after the road’s condition. Besides, the contractor assigned to maintain the road should also be held responsible. This road is always under some or the other work and always has barricades and diversions at various spots. This leads to confusion among motorists especially at night and in the early hours of the day. But the police only book the motorists while the real reason behind the accident goes unaddressed,” said Akshay Bhosale, a resident of Mahad and an activist who has been actively voicing out his concerns since 2016 about the issues on the Mumbai-Goa Highway.