Tamil Nadu - Erode   

Erode to have 80 more speed breakers

ERODE: ‘Enough is enough, please’ is one’s first reaction upon receiving the news that the district will soon have more speed breakers.

According to a proposal from the police, the district will have 80 speed breakers, with Sathyamangalam division alone making up for a good 52!

Forty of those 52 will be along State Highways, at junctions with smaller roads.

Police’s reasoning for such a high number of speed breakers is that majority of accidents take place at such ‘T’ junctions. After Sathyamangalam, Bhavani has highest number with six speed breakers, followed by Gobichettipalayam, Ammapet and Anthiyur, each of which has four. Chittode will have another speed breaker.

Police defend the move saying that it is not without justification.

In the past 10 months, 419 persons have perished in road accidents. In the same period, the number of persons who have met with non-fatal serious accidents stands at 1, 419.

The figures put Erode high on list of accident-prone districts in Tamil Nadu. But then speed breaker is not the panacea, which is how, it appears, the police think. For, at every junction in the town as well as in other places, speed breakers have come up, the defence for which again is that the place is accident-prone. Going by that logic, the town should not have accidents but facts speak otherwise.

The height of love for speed breakers was on display until recently at Chittode, where within a span of 100 metres, a road user encountered 14speed breakers. Thankfully it is now gone. More such examples are available right in Erode town. Members of the public say, the police rather than going in for speed breakers, should try other measures like stricter enforcement of traffic rules something that is urgently required. Mere presence of traffic personnel will be of no help. They also want campaigns to educate public and in particular school students. Such measures have proved successful in bigger cities like Chennai, the point out.

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