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.
This post was published on February 25, 2023 7:58 pm