A lethal combination of driving under the influence of liquor, over speeding and reckless driving snuffed out the life of an upcoming art enthusiast last week.
On Sunday last the victim was returning to his home in Perungalathur after spending a day with his wife and their two young children – a son and a daughter at the concluding day of the annual India Tourist and Industrial Trade Fair in Island Grounds.
The victim, B. Seran, a staff of Chennai Port Trust, was waiting in the narrow space on the median on Grand Southern Trunk Road below the road over bridge in Tambaram.
The driver of a Tata Indica car, who was under the influence of liquor, according to the investigating policemen, rammed into a barricade placed ahead of the median. The barricade in turn hit the victim, who sustained critical head injuries and died the next day at a private hospital in Porur.
Traders around the accident spot said the construction of the road over bridge, had enabled free movement of vehicles from and to GST Road, Velachery Main Road and Mudichur Road. But it had also posed innumerable problems for pedestrians and cyclists.
Unlike many road-over-bridges in the city where a flight of steps accompanied them for the benefit of pedestrians, the bridge at Tambaram lacks one. Several school children on bicycles strain themselves a lot by travelling on the bridge.
Sans access
Some others use the limited use subway to reach either sides of the railway lines. But to have access to the subway, the young cyclists have to pass through the narrow space on the median exposing them to great risks. Traders, while speaking to Downtown said the suffering faced by the young students are myriad.
The completion of the bridge and the subsequent closing down of the railway level crossing, had made things only more difficult for pedestrians and the cyclists.
“So far, none of the State government agencies and the Southern Railway had made any concrete effort to make a spot visit and make an appraisal to understand the problems faced by school students and senior citizens”, said K.Raja, who owns a couple of shops on Mudichur Road.
Suggestion
Pointing out to the enormous difficulties faced by the road users, the traders suggested that an ideal solution was to close down the existing space on the median.
Instead they want the authorities to create a proper opening on the median opposite Hindu Mission Hospital so that vehicles from West Tambaram side can quickly enter the limited use subway and commissioning a traffic signal.
In addition, traffic policemen should be deployed for smooth regulation of traffic and safety of school students and senior citizens. The stretch of GST Road between the railway station and the police check post was very wide before narrowing down at Irumbuliyur.
The need of the hour was installation of a traffic signal and other measures to keep a check on overspeeding and rash driving, the traders reiterated.
