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Monotony is the main killer on Expressway

Ahmedabad : Seven people, including six of a family, were killed in November last year after their jeep rammed a stationary truck on the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway near Vansol village in Kheda district. The incident hallmarked the reason for maximum accidents that took place on the expressway last year.

A lethal combination of "monotony" suffered by victims while driving at high speeds on a continuous straight stretch and absence of functional tail lights of stationary vehicles was believed to be one of the main reasons for the accidents. Other major killers were overturning mostly due to tyre bursts, right-angled collision at junctions, side swipes while overtaking and hit-and-run.

Of the 169 accidents between January and December last year, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) recorded 53 incidents of rear-end collision, 46 incidents of overturning and 18 because of tyre bursts.

However, one of the main reasons cited by NHAI was that accidents occur because drivers are not used to driving at a single stretch for a long time.

"It's monotony that ultimately kills you even if you are wide awake. Often, Indian roads meander a bit and there are obstructions to distract you. An expressway is straight and after sometime your reflexes tend to get numb. We believe that at least 42 accidents during peak months between January and April took place on the 30-60 km stretch of the expressway because of this," says a senior NHAI official.

Most of these accidents, according to NHAI officials, were because of poor discipline. "People do not check their tyre pressures, break liners, tail lights and generally drive on the expressway when they have had no proper sleep. Most of the incidents of overturning too occur because of unchecked tyre pressure. There are tyre bursts even if the air pressure is below or above the requisite level," adds the NHAI official.

The study also points out that the maximum accidents took place on Sundays last year with the average number at 22 closely followed by Tuesday with 20 accidents.

15 Mar 2009, TOI