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Road safety in spotlight after 4 accidents in three months
On May 24, eight people were killed and 28 others injured in a collision between a private passenger bus and a truck on Pune-Bengaluru national highway in Hubballi
On May 24, eight people were killed and 28 others injured in a collision between a private passenger bus and a truck on Pune-Bengaluru national highway in Hubballi. Police, who registered a complaint in the case, said the driver’s negligence and over speeding resulted in the accident. However, police report didn’t mention the fact that at the location, where the accident took place, a six-lane highway shrinks to a two-lane road without a median.
According to witnesses, the accident took place when the bus was trying to overtake a tractor that slowed the bus down. While overtaking at speed, the bus hit the truck. When HT spoke with officials in the city traffic police, they said construction of the road could have been a factor in the accident. “For 30 km stretch, the six-lane highway becomes a small city road. The drivers, who were driving at speed earlier, often get frustrated that results in accident,” said the officer.
An accident in Dharwad was one among the four accidents reported in the Karnataka this year and in these four accidents, 26 people have lost their lives.
The latest among the accidents was reported in Kalaburagi district on Friday, where seven people died. In the accident reported in Dharwad, eight were killed. Before the Dharwad accident, a multi-utility vehicle rammed into a tree near the Hubballi-Dharwad region killing at least eight people and seriously injuring 13 others on May 21. Four people died and over 25 others were injured after an overloaded bus overturned in Pavagada in Tumkuru district on March 22.
In every accident, authorities have blamed over speeding and rash driving as the reasons, however, the larger the problem of the road safety hasn’t been addressed.
From the bad design of highways to the lack of transport facilities in all of these accidents the local residents had pointed out several flaws that had led to the accident. Siddanna, a resident of Pavagada, said the reason for the accident that took place on March 22, according to police records, was the overloading.
“That day the two buses that were to ply the route didn’t come, which resulted in the overcrowding of the bus. My children were also to go on the bus, but I asked them not to go because it was overcrowded. The bus that was moving fast with people on the top lost control at a sharp turn near a lake and overturned. Many people who were pulled out of the bus were badly injured. There is no one checking this overloading,” said Siddanna.
Ashwin Mahesh, a city planner and civic expert, said while drivers are blamed for the accident, a closer look at the issue will reveal larger systemic issues. “If you look at the state’s highways, you will always find vehicles that are overloading. Whenever there is a set of vehicles that are not able to keep up with the speeds on the highway, there are chances of people overtaking out of frustration. It is no secret that overloaded, slow-moving vehicles are causing the accident and we have seen this in recent cases well. There is no punishment for that in India,” he said.
He said the problem doesn’t stop there. The responsibility of checking overloaded, slow vehicles is of the transport and police departments. “Checking these vehicles and fining them at the toll booths is the responsibility of the department. We know how often that happens. The corruption has made this enforcement ineffective,” Mahesh said.
Another set of problems is that there is a lack of planning in the highway design. “To start with, our highways are designed without enough space between the hard median and the road. In other countries, shoulder space is left on either side of that road so that even if the driver loses control, there is enough space to manoeuvre before he hits the median or goes off the road. We don’t have these designs, in fact, we have arterial roads in the name of highway in many parts,” he said.
The expert said from sharp turns on highways to not giving enough space for vehicles to take a U-turn to badly designed exits, the major roads in the country are accident traps.
An official of the transport department, which has the responsibility of road safety, said the department which is overwhelmed with the major responsibilities such as vehicle registration and making policy designs etc is unable to work on the road safety.
“Earlier an IPS officer was in charge of the road safety in the state. Road redesigns, spreading awareness and all other aspects of road safety were handled by him. Now, it has been merged with us and it is an additional responsibility,” said the officer who didn’t want to be named.
