14 Aug 2019  |   05:48am IST

100 accidents reported on NH66 in last six months

Team Herald


CANACONA: With many-fold increase in traffic on NH66 through Polem after the closure of Belgavi-Panjim road via Anmod Ghat since the last few months, at least 100 accidents have been reported on NH66 between Polem in Canacona and Balli in Quepem during the last six months.

On Tuesday morning itself two trucks met with accidents at two separate places. In the first instance, a truck carrying commercial goods from Goa to Bangalore veered off the road and dashed against the wall of a hill at Gulem in the wee hours.

In another incident, a truck carrying a box container struck the height gauge of Konkan railway bridge at Char-Rasta on Chaudi side again in the wee hours on Tuesday. 

The height gauge bar after being hit by the truck got dislodged from the centre of the vertical support and now is dangerously off balance. The locals fear that since the bar is in a precarious position, it might fall on commuters or pedestrians.

There were no injuries reported in both the incidents, but the vehicles were damaged and lost valuable transit time in reaching their destination. The truck which veered off the road at Gulem was occupying almost half of the road with blind curves on both the sides.

Sensing that their vehicle might get hit by other vehicles they spread wooden logs on both the sides of the truck supposedly to warn the oncoming traffic of the danger ahead. These temporary obstacles have increased the danger and risk to other road users.

“However, the Highway Patrol staff that is supposed to look after the safety of commuters didn’t even make an attempt to remove these dangerous obstacles and replace it with proper boards warning the road users till the truck was pulled by using another vehicle later in the day,” many road users complained.

IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar