Supreme Court panel seeks report on Haladiapadar bridge accident, asks for safety measures

Berhampur: The Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety has sought a detailed report from state govt on the accident at the railway overbridge in Haladiapadar on NH-16 near here on Jan 31 in which a truck collided with three motorcycles, killing five persons.

The committee headed by Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre asked chief secretary Anu Garg to submit the accident report by March 5. The committee also wanted the state govt to inform about the steps taken to prevent such accidents due to poor enforcement of traffic laws, speeding and wrong-side driving, among others.


Taking a serious view of road accidents in the state, the committee also sought a report on measures proposed to be taken by state govt to prevent such accidents.

Experts from the works department, railways and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) are likely to visit soon for a joint inspection of the bridge to find out if there are any structural defects leading to frequent accidents.

At least 15 people have died and 22 sustained serious injuries due to accidents on the overbridge in the last seven years, police said.

“An expert committee, which was scheduled to visit the site on Feb 16 to inspect the bridge’s structural design, is likely to visit with expert teams from NHAI and railways soon,” said a senior engineer of works department.

MP (Berhampur) Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy had written to chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi in Oct last year over the frequent accidents on the bridge due to alleged faulty construction and design of the bridge and appealed to rectify the issued.