Overspeeding, negligent driving only reasons for accidents, say NHAI Officers
Srirangapatna: Speed thrills, but kills. Data till December 28, 2022, shows that the 10-lane Mysuru-Bengaluru Access-Controlled Expressway (National Highway-275) witnessed 77 accidents in six months where 28 persons lost their lives and 67 persons sustained injuries.
Adding to the list was one more accident that occurred on the Expressway last evening where one woman was killed and four others sustained injuries. The accident took place at Gowripura near Srirangapatna between two cars as one overspeeding car jumped over the road divider and crash-landed on another car moving in the opposite direction.
The deceased has been identified as Pooja (32), a resident of Ramakrishnanagar ‘H’ Block in Mysuru city. Her father 62-year-old Muralidhar, mother 60-year-old Indra and their 35-year-old driver (name not known yet) have been injured. 40-year-old Shivakumar, the driver of another car and a resident of Swarnasandra in Mandya, has also been injured. All the injured are being treated at private hospitals.
Shivakumar was driving his Swift Dezire (KA-55-M-4291) from Mandya to Mysuru and as per eye-witnesses, he was overspeeding and lost control of the vehicle. At Gowripura, he collided with a road divider and due to the impact, his car flew over one side of the Expressway and crash-landed onto a Celerio car (KA-09-9690) that was proceeding from Mysuru towards Bengaluru.
The impact was such that both the vehicles were mangled on the front portions and all the occupants inside both cars sustained injuries. Other commuters stopped their vehicles and pulled out the victims from the mangled remains. Unfortunately, Pooja was killed on the spot.
The injured were shifted to private hospitals in Mysuru and Srirangapatna Police have registered a case. Due to the accident, traffic was held up for some time.
Looking at the nature of the accidents and their locations, Officers from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) have identified 16 accident zones on the Expressway.
While the jurisdictional Ramanagara Police have sent 13-point suggestions to NHAI authorities to reduce accidents, NHAI Officers said that all the accidents occurred due to the negligence of drivers.
“Overspeeding and negligent driving are the only reasons for accidents. According to the guidelines issued by the NHAI, the maximum speed on the Expressway is limited to 100 kilometres per hour but motorists are cruising at a speed of 140 to 160 kilometres per hour and this results in accidents,” officials added.
I traveled on this road yesterday. People don’t have lane discipline and have no patience while changing lanes. The improvements are needed in: (1) Signaling (such as flashing arrow signs) to alert the drivers well before approaching the detours. (2) Clearing the obstructions caused by halted vehicles, particularly on one of the lanes
Main problem is the lane discipline. Trucks, goods auto, buses and slow moving vehicles use the fast lane . Many a times fast moving vehicles overtake from the wrong side as the fast lanes are occupied by slow moving vehicles. And many do not switch on the indicator while changing lanes. Majority of the accidents takes place because lack of road discipline
Driving on freeways, expressways and motorways demands an altogether skill set completely different to the serpentine driving in narrow, chaotic inner city mixed traffic (from animal drawn carts, bicycles, motor bikes, cars, pedestrians where everyone thinks the road belongs only to them).
Authorities must produce graphic education videos on how accidents occur on high speed roads and how to prevent them.
A massive awareness programme is critical at this stage. They can create computerised animations using the data from all the accidents that have occurred so far to illustrate the point and reinforce the message. Our cars and drivers are not safe enough. Neither they are engineered to go beyond 100km/hour although the speedometer may show higher range, nor our reckless drivers skilled enough to handle speeds beyond 100Kmph.
” Speed thrills, but kills. Data till December 28, 2022, shows that the 10-lane Mysuru-Bengaluru Access-Controlled Expressway (National Highway-275) witnessed 77 accidents in six months where 28 persons lost their lives and 67 persons sustained injuries.”
The reality of the in-disciplined Indians, is laid bare in this expressway.
Indians are basically thugs, very selfish and hence they are so corrupt. This characteristics of Indians is well demonstrated in this express way drivers.
Yet, Narendra Modi will come, and boast about how India is superior, technologically advanced etc.. that kind of bull shot.
These deaths are happening when this expressway, is not yet fully functional. Wait for a few months and see how this expressway becomes a death trap, congested and becomes wholly unsuitable.
The biggest mistake was to make it 10-lane. The rail track between Mysore-Bangalaore should have been tripled instead, running non-stop and minimal stops trains .
This is overpopulated third world dump called India. Hence, its people behave like animals.
” Speed thrills, but kills. Data till December 28, 2022, shows that the 10-lane Mysuru-Bengaluru Access-Controlled Expressway (National Highway-275) witnessed 77 accidents in six months where 28 persons lost their lives and 67 persons sustained injuries.”
The reality of the in-disciplined Indians, is laid bare in this expressway.
Indians are basically thugs, very selfish and hence they are so corrupt. This characteristics of Indians is well demonstrated in this express way drivers.
Yet, Narendra Modi will come, and boast about how India is superior, technologically advanced etc.. that kind of bull shot.
These deaths are happening when this expressway, is not yet fully functional. Wait for a few months and see how this expressway becomes a death trap, congested and becomes wholly unsuitable.
The biggest mistake was to make it 10-lane. The rail track between Mysore-Bangalaore should have been tripled instead, running non-stop and minimal stops trains .
This is overpopulated third world dump called India. Hence, its people behave like animals.
No point in blaming the authorities. It’s human tendency to blame others. I see some people are even blaming Modi. Lol.
I have travelled on this expressway multiple times and the only thing I observe is most vehicles overspeeding. The limit is 100kms/h but most vehicles are atleast at 140 plus.
In that speed they change lanes as well.
First we need to learn to drive and follow the rules. Stop blaming the authorities and start driving within limits.
Accidents happen due to driver error as well as failure in cars, e.g Tire Burst, Brake Fail, etc. The median on the expressway is too narrow and there is no barricade to prevent vehicles from crossing over to the other side when accidents happen. This expressway does not have room for errors. When driving take the middle lane and avoid the lane close to the median.
Prevent traveling on this road if your car does not have airbags, especially side airbags. If your car is not rated for safety, better take a bus.
Expressways across the world have following norms:
1. Heavy traffic only on extreme left lane
2. Right lane only used for overtaking
3. No slow moving vehicles, like 2 wheelers, autorickshaws, minivans, etc are allowed.