CHENNAI: A birthday bash turned fatal for two college students and left five others, including the driver, injured when the car in which they were travelling met with an accident on the East Coast Road in the early hours of Sunday.
Police said all but the driver were students of a private college in Vandalur. The deceased were identified as M Safin (19), a first year BBA student hailing from Mannadi, and A Ashamed Fahim (19), a second year B.Arch student from George Town.
The injured are hired driver S Musaraf (20), of Royapettah, and students Yasar (19), Saifullah (20), Mohammed Sahiyudeen (19) and Afil (19). Police said the group had celebrated Fahim’s birthday at a resort near Kovalam on Saturday and were returning by a car driven by Musaraf.
“Around 2 am, near Injambakkam, the driver lost control of the car which ran into the median, rolled for a few metres, hit a tree and electric pole before coming to a halt,” police said. Adyar traffic investigation police registered a case against Musaraf. Bodies of Safin and Fahim were sent for postmortem.
In the wee hours of Sunday, a group of college students in a car met with an accident at Injambakkam on ECR and two of them died. The accident has highlighted the importance of taking remedial measures at ‘black spots’ where accidents occur repeatedly.
Last year, State Traffic Planning Cell and Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, studied the pattern of road accidents using available data across 11 districts for 2016 and 2017 and identified around 190 black spots along the highways. A separate analysis within Chennai city threw up 87 black spots.
Officials found that Kancheepuram district, which connects Chennai with much of the rest of the State has the most number of black spots - 48 out of 190, which is a little more than a one-fourth.
East Coast Road, recorded 48 fatal accidents in ten months in 2018. Of this, 27 persons who died were pedestrians. Officials said they found at least four TASMAC liquor shops and the height of medians were low, near almost every black spot.
Out of the black spots identified in Kancheepuram district, 42 have been “rectified”, claim officials.
In Tamil Nadu, in 2017 alone, over 15,000 people died in road accidents and the number of people maimed is much higher. This is clearly many times more severe than the toll in any major calamity.
The reasons for repeated accidents are being studied and rectified, said officials.
Transport Department is taking the lead in coordinating with other departments like police, highways and local administration.
A senior police officer said not just the roads, the road behaviour and driving habits of the drivers play a major role in making our roads safe.
What is a black spot?
A black spot is a road stretch for 500 metres along which either five road accidents, were reported in the last three years or 10 fatalities in the last three years.
Highways in Tamil Nadu
State Highways: 11830 km
National Highways: 5324 km
National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) maintains: 3285 km
National Highways wing of the State Highways department maintains: 2039 km