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Where the road rises to a summit and then slopes down and where
the driver cannot see the road ahead for much distance, is a dangerous
spot. More so, when the road curves immediately after the summit.
In such cases, drivers do not know which way the road is turning
after the summit and are therefore involved in accidents.
The summit at the end of a longish rising gradient which in turn
follows either a good horizontal stretch or a downward gradient
also becomes an accident spot. It is observed that vehicels usually
travel along the road in bunch. This bunch consist of some heavy
vehicles and some faster lighter vehicle. As soon as this bunch
starts climbing up on rising gradient the heavy trucks slow down
considerably and the impatient lighter and faster vehicles immediately
swing out of overtaking them. This overtaking action usually takes
place near the summit where sight distance is any way deficient.
At the same time the vehicles coming from the opposite direction
are just past the summit on downward gradient and are therefore,
travelling fairly fast. The carriageway being only 2 lane wide a
dangerous situation is created.
Another dangerous spot is a small level
stretch between two long downward gradients. Vehicles travelling
down the slope from both directions meet in the small level stretch
where the road is only 2 lane wide and a dangerous situation arises,.
The tress and shrubs by the side of
the road are also traffic hazards. On the inside of the curves they
reduce sight distance. In straight stretches where vehicles are
travelling fast, the tree branches projecting close to the carriage
way at height less than 6 metres also cause the heavy trucks piled
with big loads or big buses to move away from the branches and towards
the center of the road. When vehicle travelling in both direction
adopt the same tactic, a dangerous situation leading to possible
head collision can arise. Many accidents also seem to occur due
to vehicles crashing against large trees growing close to the carriageway.
In such cases fatalities are high.
In some instance with an eye to economy
the depth of cutting are reduced. This sometimes leads to long downward
gradients ending in a fairly high bank or on a two-lane bridge.
Vehicles travelling at great speed down such slopes or running out
of the driver because of mechanical failure find the high bank or
7.5 m wide bridge a difficulty proposition to handle.
When a village and its facilities like
source of water supply or school or place or employment like an
industrial estate are located on the opposite side of the road,
the situation is extremely accident prone. The villagers crossing
the road to reach the facilities are exposed to being hit by vehicles
travelling at great speed on the road.
It was seen that advance direction
signs, indication the destination to which a branch road taking
off from the main road was leading were absent at much location.
The persons heading for such destination tend to brakes suddenly
on realising that they are already at their branch road. The following
vehicles many a times hit the vehicle in such a situation.
At many locations and in several stretches
of the road committee noticed that the shoulder of roads were in
a bad shape. At some places they were very much low as compared
to the pavement. Where the cart track took off from the main road,
the shoulder was found to have been very much deteriorated in the
fanning portion of such cart track. In many instances such a portion
was found to be almost half a meter or more lower that the shoulder
immediately adjoining. This is a very dangerous situation particularly
for 2 wheelers or small vehicles or heavily loaded vehicles which
are forced on to the shoulder at night at such places,. At several
places it was also found that on curves, though the road was in
super elevation the outer shoulder had the usual camber sloping
away from the edge of the carriageway. This also is considered to
be a dangerous situation where a vehicle travelling slightly faster
than the permissible limits on such curves is likely to overturn
when its outer wheels cross the edge of the black topped pavement.
The committee also found that in the
case of almost the full stretch of national highway and in the case
of many state Highways, the traffic intensity on these roads is
already far in excess of their capacity. This creates a great difficulty
in overtaking. It also creates a dangerous situation when two large
heavy vehicles crossed each other at high spedd without a divider
in between. When shoulders are also in a bad shape in such stretches
the danger is compounded. Two wheelers in particular are in very
great danger.
Many accidents appear to have occurred
because of lack of reflectors or tail lamps to many bullock carts
or truck at night. When the drivers was blinded by lights of the
on coming vehicle. He was unable to see such vehicles ahead of him
and stood in danger of crashing against them.
The driver of broken trucks place large
stone behind and by the side of their truck to protect themselves
from other traffic. In most cases they forget to remove such stones
when leaving the spot after repairing their vehicles. Such stone
prove fatal for other vehicles, particularly two wheelers at night.
In many villages there is no separate
space available for halting of state Transport buses,. The buses,
therefore, stop right on the carriageway. Since the exist of these
buses are at the rear end the passenger alight there and when they
have to cross the road to reach their destination in the village
they cross the road from behind the S.T. bus. While doing so they
are hidden from the view of any vehicle coming in the opposite directions
so that when they emerge from behind the bus they step right in
front of such a vehicle. At several accident spots this was the
reason for the accident.
Trucks parked near dhabas and petrol
pumps and octroi naka close to the carriageway leave a very narrow
lane either between them for the passing traffic. This is a source
of accidents. Either people crossing the road are hit or sometimes
there is head on collision also. It would be better if adequate
parking space os acquired by the owners of these dhabas or petrol
pump so that there is enough parking space inside their compound
for the trucks. The roads would remain clear. For Octori Naka also
municipal Corporation / Council may also be prevailed upon to create
sufficient parking space off the road for the trucks. It would be
helpful if they are also prevailed upon to streamline the operation
of octroi collection so that the number of vehicles required to
be parked is reduced.
Recommendation
of the Committee
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1. The committee recommends that
Government should implement the measure listed by the Committee
as early as possible. Considering the constraints of the resources
the Government may consider immediate implementation of the
Priority 1 proposals in full and the immediate measures of
Priority The other measures may be implemented as early as
possible.
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2. It was observed by the Committee
during its tours that there is a sharply divided opinion about speed
breakers on highways. One section, notably those who drive the vehicles
and ride in them, feel that there should be no speed breakers on
the road,: if at all they have to be fixed, they must be as per
type plan, properly painted and provided with adequate forewarning
boards. The other section mainly consisting of residents of villages
by the road side feel that speed breakers are necessity of life.
They feel that the speed breakers should be of large size irrespective
of the possibility that they may themselves cause accidents. The
committee feels that the drivers themselves as a class are responsible
for such a situation. None of the drivers even of the vehicles in
which the Committee members were travelling paid the slightest attention
to speed limit boards by the roadside.(For that matter they did
not seem to pay any attention to any of the sign boards at all).
3. Today as soon as a fatal accident
occurs in a village, a mob gathers and forces the PWD officers to
erect speed breakers. They are not in a mood to listen to any reason
at that time. The PWD is, therefore, found to be only reacting to
a situation. Once such odd shaped speed breakers are erected the
PWD officials find it difficult to correct them later on. It is
therefore felt that the PWD may itself take a stock of all such
dangerous spots and provide proper speed breakers of standard design
to check the speed.
4. Another aspect of the matter is
that the residents of the villages by the road sides and especially
their children are required to be trained properly in the art of
living safely by the side of busy highway. With the advent of better
and better roads and more and more speedy , powerful vehicles this
has become inevitable. It is, therefore, recommended that in the
School of such villages a ten minute sermon by the Principle or
other respected person of the school at the end of the morning assembly
in the basic rules of behaviour of living safely by the said of
busy highways should be made a compulsory part of the curriculum.
In this the children should be told again and again about the correct
way of crossing the road, not playing on the road, not standing
close to the road needlessly and in general about the safe behavior.
5. A concerted campaign appears necessary
for ensuring compliance of road signs and instruction boards erected
by the roadside. This could be done by a publicity campaign in newspaper,
by putting up posters at the roadside dhabas or halting places of
drivers, by running training campus for the drivers in public and
corporate sectors, by persuading owners of large transport companies
to train their own drivers on this aspect, by running an Ad campaign
on T.V. and Radio with the help of willing sponsors and by attaching
stickers to the vehicles.
6. The committee feels that in view
of the increasing speed of vehicles it is necessary to take a second
look at the size of the road signs particularly the mandatory ones
like the speed limit boards and some of the cautionary signs like
zigzag road etc. Perhaps larger signs of special design may force
the drivers of the vehicles to notice them better. On N. Hs. and
M.S.Hs. important road sign like speed limit boards, no overtaking
etc. should be put up on gantry type overhead sign boards. The drivers
cannot miss them and might comply with them better.
7. The Government has withdrawn the
powers of the Highway police to challan the offending vehicles.
The result is that today on the highways there seems to be no enforcement
of any kind of any of the the traffic rules and regulations. It
had been pleaded by the officers of highway police that at least
the officers of that branch may be empowered to book offenders for
over speeding, wrong overtaking and negligent driving. Some members
of the public have also suggested the same thing indirectly. It
is recommended that the Government may consider these aspects carefully.
8. Today the PWD officers in charge
of roads are not paying specific attention to the safety aspects
of the roads. This has resulted in a situation where the data from
the police department has not been analysed carefully to bring out
the accident spots. So also many dangerous situations are allowed
to developed on highways, e.g. aspects like bad shoulders etc. It
is recommended that one officer of the rank of DE may be appointed
as an accident preveniton officer in each region. He may be asked
to take a look at the roads from some specific angles like bad shoulders,
dangerous approaches construction material stacekd close to carriageways,
machinery left on the road without lights, etc. His suggestions
should be issued under the authority of the CE. The SE,V& QC may
also be asked to locate the road from the accidents angle.
9. The geometric design of the road
should be audited from road safety angle. Sight distance, superelevation
should be thoroughly checked in such audit. Near all summit the
pavement should be widened to at least 10.5 width for a length about
150 m on each side of the submit. This will facilitate overtaking
and will avoid possibility of head on collision.
10. There should be special drive for
lopping and trimming of branches of trees which reduce the sight
distance at curves and also reduce the head room on the full formation
width of the road. Over the full formation width of a clear headroom
of 5.5 m must be ensured. This can be done best by a mobile gang
from a tipper. The top of the cabin can be used as a raised platform.
11. The bridges at the bottom of long
slopes should invariably be widened to full formation width. Till
such widening can be done good hazard markers and flared parapets
properly painted should be provided.
12. On high embankment following a
long and steep slope , strong safty crash barriers like the Briefen
wire crash barrier should be provided. This will prevent vehicles
from rolling down the high embankments.
13. When planning facilities like water
supply, school, hospital, ration shop etc. maximum efforts should
be made to locate them and the same side as the main village or
town so that the number of persons required to cross the road for
these facilities is reduced. Even where the source of water supply
like well is today existing on the opposite side of the road it
may be cheaper in the long run to provide another well on the same
side as the village. The collage and its hostel and ground should
be located on the same side of a road.
14. The road center line marking on
2 lane roads should be maintained in good condition always. This
will certainly reduce accidents. Even where renewal of road surface
is planned, if the time required to start the renewal is not less
than two months ,the center line marking should be restored at least
with ordinary road marking paint. The life of such road marking
is about 3 months and the cost per km is also relatively less.
15. At all junctions and also a little
ahead of such junction, the destination boards indicating the names
of places where the branch road lead should invariably be fixed.
Also village name boards should be put ahead of villages on a "countdown"
system. This will enable the drivers to control speed in time.
16. The staff of P.W.D. who are required
to work on the N.Hs. and S.Hs. should be made to wear a bright flouproscent
sleeveless jacket of orange colors so that they are easily visible
to the drivers of fast moving vehicles.
17. Bus bays must be provided for all
roads at all places where buses stop to discharge and pick up passengers
. At important places it will be better to provide proper parking
spaces for the private buses , taxis, etc. which ply between different
cities.
18. The carriage way of the road stretch
near bus stands in large places should be widened to about 12m width
to keep the vendors etc. Well clear of the main carriageway. It
is unlikely that these people will occupy the black topped surface.
19. The Municipal Corporations and
Councils should creat sufficient parking space off the road for
vehicles stopping to pay the octroi. The Government of Maharashtra
have already issued the necessary instructions in this regard vide
G.L. No. TPV-1097/958/CR-44/97/UD-27, dated 17th March, 1997.
20. The IRC should be approached to
modify their standard layouts for petrol pumps so that the pumps
are located sufficiently away from the roads and within the compound
of the petrol pumps there is enough space for trucks etc. to halt
inside such compounds. This will prevent their parking on the road.
21. All the roadside dhabas, hotels
etc. which are today close to roads in violation of Ribbon Development
Rules should be forced to move back and create adequate parking
apace for their customers.
22. The PWD officers must be instructed
strictly to ensure that contraction materials are not allowed to
be unloaded closed to the carriageway. Strict action against the
contractors who violate this requirement should be taken. No contraction
machinery may be left be the roadside without proper red lights,
white markers, etc. It should be moved as far away from the carriage
way as possible.
23. On N.Hs. and MSHs. Gantry type
overhead road signs should be erected in larger numbers to ensure
that important road signs like speed limits, no overtaking zones
are not missed by the drivers.
24. A concerted advertising and education
campaign may be taken up to educate the drivers about the importance
of compliance of road signs particularly like speed limits and no
overtaking zones.
25. Facilities should be extended to
institutions like Highway Users Club or similar Organisation to
erect traffic aid posts by the side of busy highways so that immediate
help would be available to accident victims and also drivers of
broken down vehicles.
26. It should be compulsory for all
S.T.D. Telephone booths on highways to display prominently the telephone
numbers of the local authorities to whom one may phone for help
at time of an accident on highway.
27. Stray cattle roaming on the roads
should be confined into cattle pounds by relevant authorities. Such
cattle pounds need to be reactivated.
28. All junctions should be made highly
visible by putting up brightly painted signs, guard stones and in
some cases by illumination also. Type adopted in Karnataka needs
to be studied for this purpose.
29. Wherever possible the pavements
should be widened on curves and on sharp curves curves the pavements
should be widened to 4-lanes and a divider provided in between.
3
0. In the long run the road pavements
should be widened as per the traffic intensity. As an interim measure
paved shoulders can be provided.
31. Wherever the road pavement has
been widened to intermediate lane or two lanes, minor bridges and
C.D. works must be widened to full formation width. Till this can
be achieved hazard markers should be provided and splayed parapets
constructed at the end of the bridges.
32. Design speeds for various stretches
of roads should be displayed prominently at intervals along each
road. It has already been mentioned that even though the terms of
reference of the Committee are limited to the deficiencies in the
roads, it has received all encompassing suggestions from the public.
The Committee also noticed certain things in its tours. The Committee
finds it very necessary to offer some recommendations based on all
such suggestions and observations. These recommendations are divided
in 3 parts.
For drivers
(a) While driving, the drivers should
exhibit the traditional Indian courtesy and observe the principle
of "after you" so that the possible collisions at road junctions
and narrow parts of the road will be avoided.
(b) It is totally wrong to lose one's
life or suffer injury or damage due to the mistake of other foolish
and negligent drivers. It is still more wrong to try to teach him
a lesson from your moving vehicle. Defensive driving is the best
policy.
(c) One should never overtake on a
left-hand curve because one cannot see the vehicle coming in the
opposite direction at such spot.
(d) One should never leave one's lane
while taking a right hand turn, particularly if such a turn is blind.
One should always keep left and should never ever go into the right
side lane.
(e) At every junction, while entering
a bigger road from a smaller road, one should come to a dead stop
and after making sure of clear road, one should proceed ahead.
(f) One should pay particular attention
to road signboards and more so the speed limit boards and obey them.
(g) The speed of the vehicle should
depend on the distance up to which the road ahead can be seen, Lesser
this distance the lesser should be the speed.
(h) Whenever one gets an opportunity
one should check the reflectors and red lights at the rear of one's
vehicles and ensure that they are in tact and clean.
1) For Transport Department
(a) Before issuing licences to drivers
they should be shown video tapes of serious accidents on roads so
that suitable impressions will be created on their minds and they
will drive more responsibly.
(b) It is essential that all vehicles
have reflectors on their rear. But it is seen that many trucks,
bullockcarts, trailers, etc do not have reflectors. It is, therefore,
suggested that just as private agencies are given contracts to tow
away wrongly parked vehicles in cities, similarly same agencies
may be authorised to stop reflector less vehicles and fix reflectors
on the spot. For this such agencies may be permitted to charge 25-50%
extra over the over the cost of fixing such reflectors. The petrol
pump operators can also be authrised to refuse to supply petrol
or diesel to reflectorless vehicles unless such vehicles fix reflectors.
The pump operators can stock reflectors for sale at their pumps.
(c) In the vicinity of sugar factories
one tractor is seen pulling several trolleys. The total number of
trolleys in such trains should be written unavoidably on the rear
of the last trolley.
(d) Trucks longer than the usual size
e.g. the trucks carrying containers should carry a bold sign on
the rear saying that this is a long vehicle or a special type of
reflective sign. In some advanced countries like U.K., USA and Canada
such a practice is in vogue. This will prevent vehicle drivers being
caught on the wrong foot while overtaking and possible accidents
will be prevented.
(e) It should be compulsory to paint
the front and the rear of heavy vehicles with easily noticeable
colour. For example in Tamil Nadu it is noticed that all heavy vehicles
have their front and rear painted yellow. It is also suggested that
all school buses should be painted in a distinctive colour and no
other bus should be allowed to use that colour.
(f) Road safety slogans may be painted
on the rear of trucks. The drivers of vehicles following will have
to read these slogan per force.
(g) When the trucks fail on roads the
trucks drivers arrange large stones around their trucks. On completion
of the repairs they go away usually leaving the stones behind. Such
stones can cause serious accidents. As a remedy it should be made
compulsory to carry reflective red plastic cones in the trucks.
These can be used in lieu of stones. These cones being costly the
truck drivers will not leave them on the roads.
(3) For Educational Institutes
(a) The uniforms of school children
should be of bright colour so that they can be seen from afar by
the drivers.
(b) (b) Every day after the prayers
the students should be advised regarding road safety for 5-10 minutes.
This will have lasting life long impression on their minds. They
should be told that road is not a place to play or to stand chit-chatting
on. They should remain as far away from the road as possible. While
crossing the road, they should do so at zebra painting as far as
possible and only after making sure that the road is clear. While
going home they should keep away from the main carriage way
The above recommendations are not exhaustive.
However, if they are implemented, the road accidents will certainly
reduce. It will be proper for the concerned department to take a
lead in the matter.
Future Work
The Committee is continuing its work
of road inspection. It will do so continuously till it has inspected
all the roads entrusted to it. It is learnt from the field officers
that because of the inspection tours of the Committee, the attention
of the PWD officers has started focussing on road safety. They are
becoming more aware of the subject and the deficiencies on various
roads are coming to their notice gradually.
Action on
the Recommendations of the committee
The filed officers of the PWD are preparing
proposals for improvement of roads on the basis of observation notes
of the Committee. The State Government and the Central Government
are both approving such proposals according to the availability
of funds and the works are being started one by one. The State Government
have reserved Rs. 12 crores for the purpose in the current year
and it is understood that Central Govt. also are likely to sanction
about the same amount for this work. As per the latest data available
so far on National Highways 57 spots have been improved at an expenditure
of Rs.145 lakhs. On State Highways, 105 spots have been improved
and action is in progress at 89 more places. The expenditure involved
is Rs. 202 lakhs.
Such road improvement works will help
top make the roads in Maharashtra much safer than at present. Statistics
show that at least at some locations the number of accidents has
reduced after improvements. However, for checking the accidents
which occur due to 3 other reasons, departments and institutions
other than P.W.D. have to take the necessary action. The Revenue
Deptt. and Forest Deptt. have already instructed their staff to
cooperate with the PWD and give necessary permission to the PWD
staff when they approach for permission to cut or trim the trees
for road safety.
Maharashtra is the first State to appoint
such a Committee with a view to check road accidents. The concept
is being appreciated on all India level also and it is possible
that it maybe copied elsewhere. No doubt this will add to the high
reputation of Maharashtra.
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