Four districts account for 25 danger zones on highways

Villupuram tops the list with 10 such hot spots

This stretch of Chennai-Bangalore National Highway has been identified as one of the black spots that claimed several lives. This picture was taken on August 23 after an accident that claimed nine lives including a three-year-old girl. Photo: B. Jothi Ramalingam

The State Police has identified 25 accident black spots along the National Highways in four districts that claimed nearly 1,000 lives last year mostly due to improper road alignment and rash driving.

These fatal spots fall under the jurisdiction of police stations in Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Cuddalore and Salem districts.

Villupuram has 10 hot spots, followed by Kancheepuram with eight, Salem with four and Cuddalore with two. While 17 out of the 25 accident hot spots are on NH45, the rest are on NH7 and NH4, official sources say.

Across the State, there were 5,829 accidents on the National Highways in 2011 which claimed 5,285 lives, according to the statistics provided by the office of Transport Commissioner.

I.G. Reddy, Chief General Manager (technical) of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), told The Hindu that “we conducted a survey recently to find out where the highest number of road mishaps and fatalities occurred. We also suggested short and long term remedial measures to avoid fatalities and injuries in future.”

The data provided by the police is being further studied by the NHAI and location specific solutions will be found. As part of short term measures, improvements in lighting and signages are being proposed. In urbanised stretches, service lanes, and, if needed, road widening would also be taken up.

Accidents are caused due to umpteen reasons and these include poor visibility, faulty road engineering and sharp bends. As a long term measure, flyovers could also be suggested at junctions wherever necessary.

Some of the black spots

The black spots on NH45 in Villupuram Police Station limits include Olakkur, Tindivanam, Mayilam, Vikravandi, Villupuram Taluk, Ulundurpet, Thiruvennainallur, Tirunavalur, Edaikkal and Villupuram West.

Kancheepuram NH45 has accounted for fatal accidents in D2 Chengalpattu Taluk Police Station, Guduvancheri, Otteri and Maraimalai Nagar. Vepur and Ramanatham in Cuddalore districts also falls under this category.

Salem has about four spots on NH7 — Krishnagiri, Omalur, Mallur and Sangagiri. NH4 list includes Sriperumbudur, Sunguvarchatram, Baluchetty Chatram and B3 police station. NH45 (A) in Sirkazhi, Nagapattinam district, also figures in the list.