Tamil Nadu   

Accidents up in southern suburbs

— Photo: A. Muralitharan

DANGEROUS SPOT: A view of the Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road, which is one of the four most accident prone stretches in the southern suburbs of Chennai.

TAMBARAM: The number of people getting killed in road accidents in the southern suburbs of Chennai is increasing.

The four major roads: Grand Southern Trunk (GST) Road, Chennai Bypass, Velachery Main Road and Pallavaram – Thoraipakkam Radial Road are the most accident-prone.

Statistics available with the Chennai City Traffic Police say that in the southern suburbs, 235 people were killed in road accidents in 2006 and last year, the number increased to 278.

And last month, 26 people were killed, as against 14 in January last year. This number of 278 is shocking as it amounts to 25 per cent of the total casualties of accidents in Greater Chennai.

The southern suburbs refer to areas that come under the jurisdiction of 15 police stations of St. Thomas Mount district and exclude areas along Rajiv Gandhi Salai and East Coast Road. If accidents on these two roads were to be taken into account, it would be much higher.

GST Road accounts for more than 50 per cent of the fatal accidents every year. The three other ‘big roads’ are also a cause for concern to a section of officers of traffic police.

On Chennai Bypass, connecting GST Road with Bangalore Highway, 24 people were killed in accidents in 2007, four times more than the number in 2006. And this figure pertains to the stretch of the road only between Irumbuliyur and Tiruneermalai, a 1-.km distance.

On Velachery Main Road, the 21-km-long State Highway connecting Tambaram and Saidapet, 48 people were killed in accidents last year, while the figure was 36 in 2006.

On Pallavaram-Thoraipakkam Radial Road, 11 people died in accidents in 2007, while in 2006, the number was just three.

Traffic police said the number of accidents increased despite installation of automatic signals, construction of subways on GST Road and improvement works on the other important roads as well.

The increasing accident rate was also due to a sharp increase in the number of vehicles and the preference of youths for high-speed motorcycles, particularly the 125 cc variety and above.

Involvement of volunteers in community traffic policing was poor, compared to the city, police added.

Residents however outlined the important reasons for accidents, which included failure to curb rash driving, absence of warning signs, poor illumination on dangerous spots, absence of bus bays, accumulation of silt, lack of pavements for pedestrians, encroachments and much more. There was not even one traffic signal on any of the arterial road except GST Road, they pointed out.

Activists, who preferred anonymity, were angry that the governments did not respond with any strong initiative to bring down the accident rate. They suggested formation of a road safety council to involve all departments concerned, local bodies and citizens groups to air their grievances to draw the attention of the government to the accidents on the rise in this part of the city.

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