Half of 56 deaths on this killer highway 35 km stretch due to human error: Police

The stretch between the new Katraj tunnel and Navale bridge chowk has seen 56 fatal accidents till since 2014, half of them due to “human error” the police department has claimed, adding that the remaining the accidents were mainly due to errors in road design, absence of rumblers and no signboards

A majority of the deaths since 2014 on the killer stretch between the new tunnel on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway and Navale bridge have been recorded by local police as being due to human error, officials said on Sunday.

Commuters driving on the wrong side on bypass near Narhe. A majority of the deaths since 2014 on the killer stretch between the new tunnel on the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway and Navale bridge have been recorded by local police as being due to human error, officials said on Sunday. (Ravindra Joshi/HT PHOTO)

The stretch between the new Katraj tunnel and Navale bridge chowk has seen 56 fatal accidents till since 2014, half of them due to “human error” the police department has claimed, adding that the remaining the accidents were mainly due to errors in road design, absence of rumblers and no signboards.

On Friday night a tanker rammed into an SUV, another four-wheeler and a container, killing two and injuring two.

Despite all the precautionary measures taken by the Pune traffic police department and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), a major concern about these accidents is people not following traffic rules.

“One of the main human errors is traffic violation - switching off the vehicle to drive in neutral gear and allow speeding. This is too dangerous to do on a slope like this, and in the past also there have been several accidents that happened due to this same reason,” said senior inspector Devidas Gheware of Sinhgad road police station.

“Of the total 56 deaths reported between 2014 and 2021 on the 3.5km stretch starting from the new Katraj tunnel to Navale bridge chowk, half are due to human error. Apart from switching off the engine of vehicles, many drivers suddenly try and take U-turn on the highway, or a number of vehicles including two-wheelers go where there is no-entry or the wrong side of the road. All this counts as human error and there is a need for public awareness amongst daily commuters on this road,” added Gheware.

It has been noticed by the traffic police that to save fuel, often drivers shut the engine on the slope, leading to a failure of the breaks and accidents. A few ago, back several boards were installed near Navale bridge alerting drivers to the dangers of shutting down the engine.

Meanwhile, local residents are afraid. Several residential areas like Narhe, Ambegaon Budruk, Dhayari and Vadgaon Budruk are connected to this spot. Sandeep Kute a local resident said, “I often travel through this road for my work and daily, thousands of people pass through the highway and service road. In the past also several accidents have happened here and people have died.”