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TN’s Blackspots: Accident cases on the rise despite road safety audits
Tamil Nadu has some of the most unsafe roads in the country which has cost thousands of lives every year. This puts the spotlight on road design and safety audit, even as officials maintain that rash driving and speeding are the primary reasons for accidents and fatalities
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
A round the year, teams of road safety experts fan across the country to inspect blackspots – highway stretches, each about half a kilometer, that recorded a specific number of serious road accidents or fatalities in a specific period of time. Experts, however, ask is it not a better idea to conduct safety audits during the design phase itself so that road accident fatalities — which India and Tamil Nadu are on top of the respective lists — could be prevented?
This year, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has identified nearly nine blackspots a month, on an average, across Tamil Nadu. The 78 blackspots that were flagged till the end of September included stretches of Tiruchy-Chennai, Tiruchy-Dindigul and Tiruchy-Madurai National Highways. Five blackspots have been identified between Padalur to Ulundurpet on the Tiruchy- Chennai National Highway.
Blackspot, according to the definition of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, is a road stretch of about 500m where either five road accidents (involving fatalities or grievous injuries) or ten fatalities occurred in the last three calendar years. It is the road safety experts who are tasked with identifying such spots after an inspection, and also suggest both temporary steps and long-term remedial measures to curb accidents and fatalities.
Rectification, a costly and complex process
Rectification is a rather complex process, as it involves identifying problems that are unique to each of these spots so as to decide on the best possible solution.
The rectification measures vary depending on the problem: for intersection-related crashes, the solutions could be fixing new traffic signals or revising it appropriately; converting intersections without traffic signals into roundabouts; grade separation; staggered cross intersections; extension of median through intersections so as to prohibit turns; and provision of protected right-turn facility.
In the case of crashes other than intersection-related: erecting central median to divide the road; shoulder sealing; removal and/or shielding of roadside hazards; road delineation; overtaking lanes; and construction of pedestrian facilities.
In the case of National Highways, 10 per cent of Central Road Fund (CRF) is earmarked for carrying out rectification measures. The CRF in the current financial year is approximately
Rs 83,000 crore.
Make safety audit mandatory
Gitakrishnan Ramadurai, an associate professor with the Transportation Engineering division, of the Civil Engineering department in IIT Madras, pointed out that conducting road safety audits during all the phases of construction would help reduce the number of road accidents.
“At present, such audits are carried out only for the road projects like the ones sanctioned under the World Bank schemes. Otherwise, safety audit is not mandatory while laying roads in our country. It is given lesser importance, as it is deemed as additional expenditure,” he said.
According to official data, the State Transport Department, the NHAI and Police department had jointly identified 169 blackspots across the state between 2013 and 2015, of which 81 were rectified after road safety audits. But, as Professor Ramadurai pointed out, blackspots were identified only on the state and National Highways. “The state roads were not included, as those are maintained by city corporations or district administration,” said a top Transport Department official.
Professor Ramadurai, however, added that the cost of carrying out audit was not high. “The audit will only help to prevent accidents and mitigate the situation,” he said.
Officials, though, insist blackspots were only part of the problem. State Transport Commissioner C Samayamoorthy said the department identified more than 200 blackspots last year alone, where corrective measures are being carried out. The problem, he said, lies elsewhere. “We have good quality roads. The primary reasons for increase in road accidents are over-speeding and rash driving. A majority of the safety measures are to make sure that the road users ride within the prescribed limit,” he said.
Arterial roads house killer stretches in the city
Couple of years ago, a team from IIT Madras along with the Chennai City Traffic Police conducted a study to identify blackspots in the city. The researchers found as many as 48 of them, including a large number of them on arterial roads. This report was submitted in 2016, when the city had recorded 7,486 road accidents that claimed 8,532 lives. According to the study, many spots were identified on Anna Salai, Poonamallee High Road, Outer Ring Road and Tiruvottriyur High Road among other roads. “A chunk of arterial roads in the city will come under this classification. The main reasons for the increase in number of road mishaps are over-speeding and rampant violation of traffic rules. We need to exercise safe driving to reduce the number of accidents,” said Gitakrishnan Ramadurai, an associate professor with the Transportation Engineering division, of the Civil Engineering department in IIT Madras. Beyond this, however, the roads could be improved by creating pedestrian footpaths and zebra crossings to reduce the number of accidents significantly.
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