Karnataka - Mysore   

‘No decline in the number of accidents on highway’

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

Dangerous stretch: Many of the vehicles on the Bangalore-Mysore highway throw lane disciple to the winds.

MYSORE: Though the 140-km-long Mysore-Bangalore highway allows vehicles to cruise down the four-lane road at speed of over 100 km an hour, there is growing concern among motorists of an increase in accidents owing to violation of lane discipline.

Though the left hand traffic regulations in India stipulate vehicles to remain on the left side of the road — and facilitate faster vehicles to overtake from the right side — the rule is found violated by all types of motor vehicles plying on the Mysore-Bangalore highway.

In the absence of lane discipline on the highway, faster vehicles are resorting to overtaking from both sides of the slower vehicle, throwing all road safety norms to the wind.

With slower vehicles like trucks and buses sticking to the right side of the road, faster vehicles like cars and sportsutility vehicles are invariably forced to overtake them from the left.

Overtaking from the right — a traffic offence that invite penalty — has become a norm among vehicle drivers on this highway that even drivers of police and government vehicles are no exception.

In the absence of police patrol on the highway, traffic offences relating to violation of lane discipline, reckless and negligent driving, besides over-speeding are being committed with impunity.

The rise in vehicular density on the highway and the increase in average speed of vehicles ever since the widened road was thrown open to traffic three years ago have begun making the road increasingly unsafe for driving.

Though the Government took up the work on widening the highway, which had become a notorious death trap, five years ago, there is no let up in the accident rate on the road. “There is no perceptible decline in the number of mishaps on the highway,” Inspector-General of Police Jeevan Kumar Gaonkar told The Hindu.

Even if the double lane highway had been widened into a four-lane highway with a median in between, the highway remains as accident-prone as ever. “There are a number of openings in the median through which pedestrians and cyclists cross, catching the speeding motorists unaware and causing fatal accidents”, Mr Gaonkar said.

Mr. Gaonkar regretted the absence of sufficient manpower to enforce lane discipline on the highway. “We don’t have enough force to enforce the traffic regulations”, he said.

However, the police have requested the opening of a traffic police station at Maddur along the highway, besides sufficient patrol vehicles to bring about a semblance of traffic discipline among the motorists.

He also felt the need for inculcating traffic sense among the drivers. “There needs to be awareness among the drivers. Even educated people, who drive through the road, are committing traffic offences”, he lamented.

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