PONDA: Govind Gawander (27), a Mollem resident, died in an accident at Kerya-Khandepar, on Friday at around 2 pm. This is the sixth fatal accident in the last 18 months at the same spot which the locals claim is accident prone.
According to Ponda police, Gawander was proceeding from Mollem to Ponda on a two-wheeler while a car driven by Viraj Usgaonkar (44) was proceeding towards Usgao from Ponda. On reaching Kerya-Khandepar both the vehicles collided with each other.
Gawander was taken to Ponda Sub-district Hospital with severe injuries. However, he was declared brought dead.
Ponda police arrested the car driver for rash and negligent driving; police suspect that the driver was under the influence of alcohol.
Meanwhile, Ponda MLA Ravi Naik has expressed concern over faulty road engineering of road at Kerya-Khandepar. He said that the highway at that stretch has many turns and sharp curves making it accident prone.
“The road is uneven and at many places the road appears like waves. Besides, there are no proper signboards. Many roads converge at the Kerya-Khandepar junction and since there are no signboards to guide traffic movement, motorists get confused and meet with accidents,” Ravi said.
He said that crores of rupees have been spent on widening the national highway, but without taking safety aspects into account.
