Highway police ask for more power

Mumbai: With the distressing increase in the rate of highway accidents, like the gruesome one on Sunday which claimed 16 lives, the Maharashtra State Police has made a proposal to the government to give it more powers to cut down fatalities on the road.

"We have been trying to create policies whereby we can check overspeeding, overcrowding in vehicles and other problems that lead to accidents," Highway Safety Police chief S.S. Bansode told Gulf News.

Once Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil sanctions their proposal, the state police will have the powers to ensure safety and compliance of rules on the highways, he says.

"Right now, we do not have the powers to make any cases against the drivers or vehicle owners but only assist the local police under whose jurisdiction the accident occurs. The Sunday accident is with the Raigad police and we are only now providing all assistance to them," he says.

A recent report of the Highway Safety Patrol of the Maharashtra Police on accidents between January and December 2007 revealed that most accidents occur in April and May, causing 22 per cent of fatalities, as people travel on vacations or to attend weddings or even go on pilgrimages. Speeding was the cause of 60 per cent of accidents.

Overcrowded

The Sunday accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway claimed the lives of three children, ten women and three men, all proceeding to a wedding in Mumbai.

Driver Nitin Dhumal, 25, who later died in a Panvel hospital, was not only speeding at 130 kilometres per hour with the overcrowded jeep, but is suspected to have fallen asleep at the wheels since he did not even slow down at a curve on the Expressway.

The jeep rammed into an empty trailer heading to Mumbai and got stuck in it.

The trailer's driver, though he heard a thud, did not even stop until relatives of the victims travelling in another vehicle went ahead and shouted, asking the driver to stop.

In cases of fatigued and overworked drivers, police are likely to punish the owners of vehicles that are rented out to clients. In the Sunday accident, the jeep belonged to a Satara-based car rental firm.

Bansode said that the Highway Patrol was doing a satisfactory job though recent newspaper reports have pointed to most of traffic aid posts on the highways not having proper phone connections with their control rooms.

Around 11,000 people die in road accidents every year in Maharashtra.