VIOLATORS ALL?: It is a dicey situation on NH-5 in Vijayawada at any given time. Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhakar

VIJAYAWADA: Screaming signboards on highways with catchy phrases like `Speed can kill' do not seem to be meant for people using the National Highway-5 (NH-5) passing through the city. Lack of a traffic control system - be it a constable or a set of signal lights __ makes drive at the junction opposite SVS Kalyana Mandapam ominous.

As if representing a special breed of the `exempted lot', a majority of drivers behind the wheels of heavy vehicles hitting the NH-5 turn crazy.

Although spared of common problems like heavy traffic flow or a jostle for road space, vehicles using this highway are perilously prone to speed-related hazards.

This bisection on the NH-5 has vehicles moving in multiple directions without any caution or precaution.

As the traffic at the ever-busy Benz Circle impedes the speed of vehicles bringing them to a halt, the serpentine queues of vehicles extend beyond this junction, especially during afternoons. Overpowered by an anxiety to carry on the journey, drivers go berserk at once, trying to make up for the lost time at the traffic signals by spinning the wheels on the highway at will.

Motorists and other heavy vehicle operators entering the city from this point are also victims of a similar syndrome. Conquered by an eagerness to cross the traffic signals at the circle before the green light turns to red, the vehicles are accelerated to frighteningly high speeds and zoom past the busy junction.

The median of the road-divider to enable users of the adjacent service roads on either side of the highway is almost like a death trap.

People obsessed with speed do not care to avoid using the median space to criss-cross the highway.

"Two wheelers using the two service roads and intending to reach the other end must exercise great caution, because drivers of the speeding lorries don't slow down or make way for the pedestrians to cross the road," says Rama Naidu who runs a mineral water unit on the service road near S.V.S Kalyana Mandapam.

Always clogged

The two service roads are almost always clogged with traffic. If vehicle repairing workshops and godowns of companies like Bata footwear and ICI paint dot one service road, the other leads to a petrol bunk which witnesses a flurry of activity the entire day.

The bad experience of riding through the narrow service roads where heavy vehicles almost scrape through is forgotten in the delight of hitting the smooth, extensive and broad four-lane highway, which goads the rider to accelerate the speed machine and race against the pace of the wind.

"For people using this road, violation of speed limit is almost a rule," says Mangamma, a pushcart vendor at the median, as she watches vehicle drivers engaging in a mad race to outsmart one another.

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