Every time travellers take to the road they pray, Catholics usually make a sign of the cross, to take them to their destination and back home to their loved ones in safety, roads in India and specially Goa have been so unsafe, of late numerous fatal accidents have taken place in Goa, the question is, were they avoidable? On August 2, 2022 when a family had come down from Dubai and was travelling from Dabolim, the taxi driver dozed off hit a road divider and crashed on a protruding compound wall at Navelim, an elderly couple died. No corrective measures taken yet. Goa has shown 17% rise in fatal accidents. In India every 4 minutes an individual dies of road accident. Good news is, Government is identifying black spots (39 identified in Goa).
Celebrity Accident:-The tragic accident of Cyrus Mistry, on 4th Sept, has brought the spotlight on road safety. Dr Anahita Pandole a famous gynaecologist from Mumbai was driving a Mercedes-Benz SUV owned by Cyrus; sitting by her side was her husband Darius Pandole, on the back seat was Cyrus Mistry and Jehangir Pandole, (Darius brother). They were returning from a visit to a Parsi fire temple from Ahmedabad to Mumbai on the NH 48 highway, when their SUV hit a concrete parapet, in between a two-lane bridge over ‘Surya’ River at Palghar. Point to be noted, is that just before the bridge, the 3-lane highway converges, all of a sudden, into a two lane, there are no sign boards nor rumblers (speed breakers) to warn the motorist to slow down and change lanes, if the motorist fails to change the lane in time, reaches a dead end and inevitably hits the concrete parapet. The Police and other authorities were quick to point out that the SUV was travelling at high speed (average computed between two check points on camera),and tried to overtake from the left, lost control and crashed on the concrete parapet, it is pertinent to note that another accident had taken place on the same spot, a car ran down in-between, the two separate bridge lanes, into the ‘Surya’ river, the concrete retaining wall/parapet was built presumably to stop the cars from falling in the river. This begs the question, did this short-cut solution, solve the problem or made it worse. Why was a gap left between the two bridge lanes, why where the three lanes not continued across the ‘Surya’ river? Perhaps economic reasons or lack of space? The International Road Federation (IRF) has pointed out glaring faulty design and absence of signages. In case of an accident, the easy way out for the authorities is to wash their hands of any responsibility and shift the blame on to the driver and the occupants of the vehicle.
Cyrus and Jehangir (Darius brother) were sitting on the back seat and it was alleged that they were not wearing seat belts and as a consequence lost their lives in the crash. I fully agree that all the occupants of the vehicle should wear seat belts for their own safety but does it absolve the authorities of faulty road design and geometry, if done correctly it would have avoided the accident in the first place. High-end automaker spends millions of euros/dollars in research and test-crashes to make their cars safer, does the Indian Government spend by the same measure to make the roads safer? Mercedes-Benz brought a team from Hong Kong to analyse the EDR (Event Data Recorder/Black-Box), the EDR was later sent to Germany for decoding MB released a statement that the SUV was travelling at 100 Km/hand the brakes were applied five seconds before the crash and the speed was 89 Km/h before it hit the concrete wall, the SUV has 7 airbags out of which 3 got inflated, (2 in front fully and 1 at the rear partially), the front passengers got saved albeit with serious injuries, while two eminent Parsis who were on the back seat lost their lives, the irony of the situation is that Dr Anahita Pandole is heading a Government programme called ‘Jiyo Parsis’ .
To add to the confusion truckers, flash the right-side indicator (instead of the left) to signal you to overtake. (Is he turning right?). Lorries have funny signal posted at the rear ‘Horn OK’. (‘Keep safe distance Air Brakes’). Piloo Mody once made a hilarious statement in Parliament that in the Indian car everything sounds except the horn.
Goa Scenario:- The recently built NH 66 (earlier NH 17),has several imperfections, the road is uneven, vehicle starts vibrating at high speed, near bridges there is abrupt rise and fall of levels. Road junctions at Navelim and Nuvem cause confusion and are not scientifically designed. Each speed lane has to be assigned max speed limit (ex 50,60,70, etc) start and end of speed limit signages are required, speed cameras need to be fixed to check over speeding and jumping traffic signals. With the commissioning of Mopa airport accidents are expected to rise, users are advised caution and prudence, lest their lives get extinguished like ‘candle in the wind’ – the theme song by Elton John at Princess Diana’s funeral.
