The practice of drying up farm produces on highways has resulted in yet another major accident near Sankarankovil in the district on Saturday night, it is high time the official machinery stopped this practice to save the lives of road users.
To thrash millet rice (initially reported as black gram) harvested from his farm, farmer Ramakrishnan of Kurukkalpatti had heaped it on the two-lane Tirunelveli–Sankarankovil highway.
At night, the heap was covered with tarpaulin in a bid to protect it from moisture and Ramakrishnan had kept a few boulders on it to keep the heap intact.
When a group of people from Rajapalayam were returning home in a van after offering prayers at a temple at Chettiyapaththu in Tuticorin district, the driver failed to notice the heap of millet rice on the road from a distance. On seeing the mound on the road, he swerved to the right only to hit a Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus coming in the opposite direction. Five persons – Shanti (26), her six-month-old son Karthikeyan, relatives F. Gnanasekaran (35), N. Selva Vadivu and S. Selvi (25) – were killed on the spot.
As drivers lose control of the vehicles while crossing the dry crops spread on the road, it leads to accidents. Moreover, dust emanating from the thrashing dry crops also affects the drivers’ vision. Due to lack of drying yards in villages, farmers use roads to complete drying and thrashing operations.
Many feel that the farmers should be sensitised to the need for restricting their activities within their villages, and the police should warn them that cases under stringent provisions would be registered against them if they violated the instruction.
“It is high time the official machinery came to the rescue of drivers, whose repeated pleas with their higher-ups in this connection are yet to be heard. Whenever some vehicles got involved in accidents caused by the harvested crop heaped on the road, the drivers are being made scapegoats. The officials concerned should ban this practice and ask the farmers to stay away from the busy State and national highways. Moreover, the district administration should create drying yards in villages,” said S. Ananthan, a TNSTC bus conductor.
