At end of road safety month, five of family killed in accident on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

Tuesday’s incident took place early in the morning

Five people of a family were killed in an accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway on Tuesday, a day after 16 died when a truck overturned on Monday, raising questions about Maharashtra's road safety. Experts have questioned token safety drives and said real action and implementation are the need of the hour.

mid-day had highlighted the issue on January 19 when the government's Road Safety Month had been flagged off. Experts had said that the zest of the drive needs to be sustained throughout the year.

With 11,452 deaths in 2020, Maharashtra has figured among the top three states with the highest number of fatalities in road accidents. In Monday's accident, 16 labourers were killed near Jalna. Maharashtra Transport Commissioner Avinash Dhakne had said that no one would be spared.

"Not more than three people are allowed onboard an agri-truck and we do not know why so many people were travelling in it. Our local RTO teams visited the spot. The vehicle had a valid fitness certificate expiring in November 2021. We are checking other aspects, too," Dhakne had said.

In Tuesday's accident near Khopoli, the five deceased include the veterinary medical officer of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) Dr Vaibhav Jhunjhare, 41, and his four family members. The vet's grievously injured 11-year-old son was the only one to survive. They were returning to Navi Mumbai from their native Solapur when there was a multi-vehicle pile-up. Officials said the exact cause of the accident is not clear yet.

Get a road safety commissioner
"We need to have a Road Safety Commissioner on the lines of a Railway Safety Commissioner to look into the cause of every accident and take corrective and preventive action in line with ISO 9000 standard to avoid a repeat of such incidents. He must inspect the highway plan at the design stage and give his comments to take care of likely black spots. Without his inspection and certification, the highway should not be thrown open for traffic," Ajit Shenoy, senior transport expert with Mumbai Mobility Forum and Mumbai Vikas Samiti, said.

"Other action is periodic driving tests of heavy and light vehicle drivers for renewal of licence and proper training at a training institute," he added.

Another expert Jagdeep Desai said, "It's not enough to just hold seminars and training sessions. We need no-nonsense zero-tolerance action against traffic offences for at least one month all over India to give offenders an idea of what the law is."