Students who were injured in an accident near Srirangapatana being treated at the JSS Hospital in Mysore on Tuesday. — PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

MYSORE: Though commuters between Mysore and Bangalore are looking forward to a safer and faster journey between the cities on a widened highway, the death of two school children, who were knocked down by a car at Gowdanahalli near Srirangapatna on Tuesday, highlights the pitfalls of travel on the partially-completed highway.

The stretches of the highway, where traffic is allowed only on one side of the median, have become virtual death traps. For, the drivers of vehicles, particularly cars, multi-utility vehicles (MUVs) and trucks, refuse to slow down even on seeing on-coming vehicles. Many travellers on the highway heave a sigh of relief after completing the journey unscathed.

Though the road-widening work has reached its last stages, traffic is allowed only one side of the median on some stretches.

Due to absence of proper traffic signs, vehicles are found plying on only one side of the median even when the road on the other side is also open for traffic, creating confusion among the drivers.

"Such an incident was waiting to happen," said a resident of Mysore, who recently drove to Bangalore.

"I came across many vehicles driving at break-neck speed even on stretches of road, where traffic was plying on the same side of the median. The experience was frightening," he said.

The newly-laid asphalt on the widened highway allows traffic, particularly cars and MUVs, to ply at speeds in excess of 120 km a hour on the four-lane highway.

With the authorities yet to mark the lanes on the highway, which has been designed for two lanes on each side of the median, over-taking from the wrong side has become rampant. Mandya Superintendent of Police Sridhar told The Hindu that the traffic police along with the Regional Transport Office will install traffic sign boards on speed limits, warnings near curves and speed breakers after the road-widening works are completed.

When the practice of overtaking from the left on the highway was brought to his notice, Mr. Sridhar said the authorities will ensure that trucks and other HTVs ply on the lane away from the median, allowing faster moving vehicles access to the lane that runs alongside the median. "We will ensure that vehicles follow the traffic guidelines", he said.

He said the authorities are planning to set up two more "Jeevan Raksha" centres or Life Saving Centres on the highway, where vehicles, equipped with first-aid, are stationed so that they can rush to the site of the accident and shift the injured to hospitals. Presently, two such centres are functioning at Srirangapatna and Maddur.

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