Pothole deaths scary, says Supreme Court

Death Trap?: The busy KRS Road from Mysuru city side has become a nightmare for thousands of motorists, who travel towards the KRS Dam to witness the water release. Accidents on this busy stretch are a regular feature, thanks to innumerable potholes and huge craters. Picture shows one such crater bang opposite the yet-to-be-operational Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, which was inaugurated by the then CM Siddharamaiah in March 2018.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday described as “frightening” the deaths in accidents caused due to potholes on roads across the country and said that number of fatalities in such incidents was more than those in terror attacks.

A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta said that persons who have lost their lives as a result of accidents caused due to potholes should be entitled to compensation.

Hearing a PIL filed by S. Rajseekaran on road safety, the Bench said it was a matter of “common knowledge” that a large number of people have died in accidents caused due to potholes on roads, and authorities, who were supposed to maintain the roads, were not doing their duties properly.

“So many people are dying in the country due to accident caused by potholes on roads. Reports say that more people have died due to accident caused by potholes than the deaths in terrorists attacks,” the Bench said.

The Court asked the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety, headed by former SC Judge Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan, to look into this “very serious issue.”

This post was published on July 21, 2018 6:39 pm