Speed-breaker proves fatal

Speed-breaker proves fatal
Lorry hits road hump, crushes techie to death
Vijay Times

Bangalore: Blessed with a child just four months ago and on the threshold of a bright career as a software engineer, life ended abruptly for R Uday Shastry , 29, when he was crushed to death under a truck while returning home on Mahadevpura Ring Road on Monday night.

An invisible road hump sealed his fate. A truck driver coming from the opposite direction lost control after hitting a road hump , jumped the divider and turned turtle, crushing the motorcyclist underneath. Shastry was on his way back to his Rammurthynagar house around 10.30 pm.

The incident has shifted focus on the unscientifically constructed speed-breakers in the City . Their number , as per I ndian R oad Congr ess figur es, stands at 668, while the traffic experts feel the figure could easily cross the 1,000-mark.

M N Srihari, Professor , MS Ramaiah Institute of T echnology , and Chairman, traffic engineer and safety trainer and also adviser to the Go vernment of Karnataka, is critical of the negligence sho wn in adhering to specifications while constructing speed-breakers. He laments that almost 98 per cent of the speedbreakers in the City are in violation of specifications.

H osmat , Victoria and Bo wring H ospitals receive two to three injury cases on an average every day .

Deputy commissioner of police ( traffic) MA Saleem says the BCC and BDA are the commissioning authorities in consultation with the department, while the City police takes care of the maintenance part and putting up proper signs.