Bhopal's blind spots are death-traps

Bhopal: Blind turns, including the ones at Kaliasot are a major cause of accidents on Bhopal roads. These danger-zones not only restrict visibility, but also pose a challenge to commuters at night. With no early warning system in place and street-lights absent, these are fast turning into death-traps. An engineering student died and another battling for life after their car veered out of control at a Kaliasot blind spot on Tuesday night.

TOI surveyed blind spots in the city and found that death lurks round the corner in several localities. The most accident-prone areas are on the road connecting Jail Road and Upper Lake behind chief minister's house, Manav Sanghralya to Neelbad stretch and from Kerva dam road to Kaliasot dam. These spots do not have signages to alert riders. Worse, most of these roads are also safe havens for reckless drivers high on booze.

However, authorities are not alarmed. Police don't bother to man the areas, despite rising number of accidents, including the ones involving an engineering student Rashi Dubey and an NLIU student. Instead, police conveniently pass the buck when asked on these no-patrol zones

"This is an example of irresponsibility on part of authorities, be it police or local administration. These are dangerous turns, but there are no signages to caution commuters. Nor are police present at the spot. Bikers zoom through the blind turns," said Prashant, a regular commuter.

"More accidents can occur in the area if police don't deploy personnel on either side of sharp turns. Speed breakers should be built and signages should be installed," he said.

ASP (traffic) Sameer Yadav said traffic cops have identified 78 danger zones across city.

"We have written to authorities about road engineering flaws. Rotaries do not serve the purpose and instead create traffic gridlocks. They also raise chances of accidents. If we have signals at every road, why do we need rotaries," he said.

Traffic police on their part are doing their bit to avoid accidents and have installed reflectors, road dividers, barricades at various places and are also taking up programmes to create awareness, he said.