Jamshedpur: 168 lives lost in 215 mishaps on Tata-Kandra road in one year

Absence of parking for heavy vehicles major cause of mishaps

Mail News Service

Seraikela, March 13: The Tata-Kandra main road is gaining notoriety for being a killer road by every passing day.

As per reports obtained from the Seraikela road transport department, 215 road mishaps have occurred, resulting in 168 deaths across a stretch of around 35 km in last one year. In these incidents, 123 people were injured or disabled, sources said.

Sources said a major cause of accidents on the said road is the unsafe practice of parking vehicles on the sides of the road. The heavy vehicles are parked here without permission or safety compliance. To make matters worse, there are no speed breakers on the road. As per reports, most of the accidents happened due to the collision of speeding vehicles with the stationary vehicles. Due to high speed, lack of visibility and carelessness, many vehicles ram into the vehicles from behind. This results in critical and fatal injuries, sources said.

Sources said most of the accidents were reported in Kandra, Seraikela, Chowka, Adityapur, Rajnagar, Chaibasa and Hata. In the last 14 months, 95 people have died. On Friday last night, one Vinod Purty, a contract worker of RKFL plant died at the scene after his hike rammed into a stationary trailer truck from behind.

Sources however maintained that heavy vehicle drivers park their vehicles on road because there is no parking facility for them.

Local residents said the entire road stretching from Adityapur to Gamharia was ridden with large pits caused by the ongoing pipeline laying work by GAIL. At many places, the road has not been leveled to cover the pits. So far, several black spots have been identified, but no concrete measures have been taken by the district administration authorities concerned to prevent the mishaps. Lack of speed breakers and inadequate illumination of the main road are also giving rise to accidents, sources said.

According to district transport officer (DTO) Dinesh Ranjan, “The transport department is continuously making efforts to curb road accidents. We are installing sign boards near black spots to make people alert and aware. Drums and breakers are also being installed on the roads to reduce the speed of vehicles. Road safety committees and district police are continuously launching awareness drives. Also, action is taken against drunken drivers to stop road accidents.”