Indian Express

RR: To prevent crossing over, dividers to go up

Express news service Posted online: Sat Jan 05 2013, 03:10 hrs
Home Minister R R Patil on Friday announced that a project to increase height of dividers on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway is in the pipeline. The Expressway has seen a large number of accidents where vehicles had crossed the median and collided head-on with vehicles in the opposite lane.

Patil, addressing a function to launch the Traffic Safety Fortnight at Urse Toll booth on the Expressway, said, “There have been a large number of accidents in the recent past where vehicles have broken the divider and caused accidents. To prevent such incidents a project to increase the height of the divider to 2.5 feet is on the anvil. Instructions have been issued to Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC).”

State Highway Police SP Dilip Bhujbal said, “We had submitted a proposal to MSRDC. As elevation of both the sides of the highway is the same, increasing height of dividers will curb accidents caused by vehicles breaking them and crossing over.”

Statistics from the Pune division of the State Highway Police reveals that in 2012 there have been around 25 accidents on the Expressway in which vehicles had careened out of control crossed the divider to hit vehicles coming in the opposite direction leading to 15 deaths and 45 serious injuries.