Even as the authorities claim to have set up many lay-bys for lorries on NH 65, no driver wants to park his vehicle there as a majority of them are located in isolated places, far from habitations and lack facilities like petrol filling stations, hotels, restrooms and other facilities.
Result: the drivers are parking their vehicle on the roadside, resulting in traffic congestions and accidents.
Moreover, the sources in Police department are of the opinion that the existing lay-bys are not adequate to cater to the needs of the vehicles plying on the NH. For example, an over speeding SUV hit a parked lorry near Babasahebgudem, close to Nakerkal town, resulting in the death of four persons last Saturday. An RTC bus hit a stationary lorry three months ago at the same place, claiming three lives and injuring many. In both cases, the drivers had parked lorries on the roadside to have their food.
Going by the statistics obtained from the Nalgonda SP office, as many as 567 accidents had taken place last year on the NH, resulting in 258 deaths and 819 injury cases. And interestingly, of the 567 accidents, 447 were related to parked vehicles and negligent driving.
Truck drivers say they are forced to park their vehicles on the roadside with the unavailability of feeder roads along the NH.
sFurther, they hesitate to park their vehicles that are often laden with valuables at the lonely lay-bys, fearing burgalary.
According to Police, before the NH was made a four-laned one, a majority of deaths were caused due to accidents due to lack of road divider and now, the four-laned road lure the motorists to drive much faster, causing collision with the parked vehicles. The Police had also discussed the issue at a meeting with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials and Contractor of the NH 65, GMR Punj Loyd Consortium. According to a source, the police suggested building truck lay-bys close to hotels and towns and increasing their number subsequently, apart from installing ‘himax’ lighting system at all juntctions, constructing approach roads and speed breakers. But, none came forward to make the arrangements, while the accident rate on the NH refuses to decline.
