Better late than never:
Cops finally wake up to zero in on black spots on city flyovers
Bhubaneswar: In the wake of a spurt in mishaps on city roads especially on its flyovers, the Commissionerate of Police Monday directed traffic officials to identify black spots on around eight km long flyover running across the city from Palasuni to Khandagiri square. The traffic police have been asked to take the help of RTO officials in this exercise.
Commissioner of Police Satyajit Mohanty told Orissa POST, “We are concerned over the casualties in road mishaps over last couple of days. We have planned to take various measures to check over-speeding at important places on the flyovers. We will make barricades and deploy more interceptor vehicles to check over-speeding. We have directed traffic officials to identify black spots and erect speed breakers.”
A father-son duo Monday died on a patch of the flyover near Acharya Vihar square. Various city roads, especially flyovers have turned into death traps as accidents have taken place almost every day. Despite Supreme Court’s criticism, it seems the state administration is still unable to rein in the high number of accidental deaths in the state.
The deceased father-son duo was identified as Gangadhar Maharana, 55, and his son Laxman Maharana of Madanpur village under Dasapalla police limits in Nayagarh district. Gangadjhar, a farmer, was suffering from heart ailment and visited SCB Medical College and Hospital at regular intervals.
Gangadhar with his son was going to Cuttack by a scooter (OD 25 H 6460) Monday morning when an unidentified vehicle hit their scooter. The impact was so huge that the duo fell off the flyover. Onlookers present at the spot immediately called the police who rushed the duo to Capital Hospital. Gangadhar succumbed to injuries at the hospital while his son was referred to Vivekananda Hospital. Later, doctors referred him to Sum Hospital where doctors declared him dead.
Seven persons have died in different road mishaps at various places in the city over last four days. Mostly two-wheeler riders have fallen victim to these mishaps. Over-speeding on the flyover and driving on wrong sides are main reasons of these accidents.