Road junctions on National Highway in Nellore prone to frequent accidents, leading to loss of lives

Nellore: Many road junctions in the city limits have become death traps as several accidents take place regularly. The NHAI administration has failed to prevent parking of vehicles on the road sides on national highways. There are no CC cameras and sign boards to indicate accident prone areas. Police have been facing difficult situation as they fail to guess possible reasons for the accidents at city junctions on the NH.

NTR Nagar, Padmavathi Green City, Kanuparthipadu crossroads and Simhapuri Hospital junctions were found to be places where majority accidents occur. Amongst them NTR Nagar and Simhapuri Hospital Circles are very dangerous where speeding vehicles hit the patients and people who cross the highway.

The district is having around 200 km highway from Kavali to Tada that has been witnessing huge number of accidents regularly and on an average, three accidents occur daily and around 40 people lose their lives in road accidents in the district every month on an average.

In the case of Nellore city, there are no either subways or under-bridges for safety of commuters and pedestrians who cross the busy highway. There should be some mechanism to alert the drivers of speeding vehicles to slow down at these points.

There should be cameras from which data can be used for identifying reasons for major accidents. Under bridges have to be constructed for safety of commuters, said a police official. Due to urbanisation, city expanded extensively on eastern part of the city where people cross the road for their requirements.

Further, illegal dhabas located on both sides of the highway were giving scope for halting of even heavy vehicles on the road margins. Administration failed to curb such practices on the highway and the statistics also reveal that major accidents were occurring due to parked vehicles during night time.