[Sabareesh]

Like everyone else here, I am also a regular victim of traffic jams, blazing horns and notorious rickshaws & state transport buses. Couple of days back, I witnessed a horrifying accident which I want to share with everyone.

It was a fine sunny morning when I started my 25 kms journey towards my office at Navi Mumbai. The highway connecting Dombivili and Vashi is being concretized so traffic jams are a common scene. My car joined the ever increasing line of other vehicles at the diversion. A single lane was open as the adjacent lane was being worked upon. All the cars were at a speed of 40 - 50 kmph when suddenly I heard a loud bang. Almost all the cars in front of me screeched to a grinding halt. Everyone was confused as to what happened. As the traffic was stationary, I came out of my car to see what had happened.

A truck had met with an accident, it went into a cross section of the road which was dug. The driver lost his control and the truck steered towards right and headed straight into the pit. Fortunately the Driver and Cleaner came out with minor injures, no one was hurt. Workers usually are inside the pit for construction of a gutter. On that day, thankfully no one had started their work when the accident happened.

All this mishap happened because no sign boards were put, commuters who take the road everyday are aware of the construction areas but people who are non regulars have absolutely no clue. The authorities had just put a tin sheet where the construction was being carried out. Even now No reflectors / sign boards are placed, the work was supposed to end before monsoon but till today only 60% of the road is finished. I wonder how these people can risk the safety of commuters. Here are some pics taken at the accident spot.

[n_aditya]

That looks ghastly. Isnt that a metal pole which has entered the cabin in the 3rd pic? Luckily the 2 were not injured seriously or killed.

There ought to be some warning signs put up. This could be deadly especially at night. Someone should sue the authorities.

[ramie2400]

Hope the truck driver is safe in this mishap.

As soon as the monsoon season comes near the all mumbai road work starts happening by the month of April all of a sudden,they dig up for a month and the monsoon season starts,washing all the way their road building material,hence they claim for monsoon losses and fill up their wallets,and till october november the roads remain the same ... so no use of blaming anyone as we all are used to it now and have started living with it.

[sanjayatarizona]

I guess there is nothing new in the fact that in India WIP areas are mostly not indicated at all. Drivers are always at their own risk.If you are lucky you miss the trenches, if not god help you .


By the way i wonder what the truck driver was trying to do here?? A risky overtake/ giving way to some impatient dumb driver??

[Sabareesh]

Thats a bamboo pole used by the construction workers.

2 more pics attached in which you can see the concrete road ending abruptly without any proper road signs apart from a small reflector.

P.S - Please excuse the poor quality of pics as these were taken by my Ericsson p1i during evening without proper lighting.

Till this section, the road is a proper 2 lane.....



Suddenly, without any proper indications, the road is narrowed to a single lane as the 2nd lane is being worked upon.

[esteem_lover]

Seems like the driver dozed off too.

[snaronikar]

Common problem wherever the road is being laid. But they should have put some sign boards to caution the drivers. But how many people will read and heed to these will be a big question.

[Saurabh M]

Agreed that there needs to be proper signs and warnings when road construction is going on. This would specially help at night. But Indian roads always comes with these surprises. We probably have drivers with the best reflexes.

However, its a little odd to have such an accident in broad daylight when traffic is moving at 40-50kph.

[DriverR]

Everything said and done there was at least a tin sheet with yellow stripes. No one in his right sense would delibrately drive through one, at least no sensible person. Additionaly this happened in broad daylight, not night. Plus the truck's driver cab is high, I'm sure the driver could very well see that there is nothing on the other side of the sheet. In any case, common sense should tell that if there is a tin sheet by the side of the road, one should not attempt to drive through it. There is something else to this accident...possibly a sleepy driver as suggested earlier.

[Lalvaz]

Man, the truck driver was lucky to walk away with minor injuries. The authorities really should be answerable for such shoddy work. Someone has to pay for this negligence else this sort of work will continue for ever.