KARWAR : Highways are nice to drive on, if they are in good shape. But in Uttara Kannada, they are proving to be death traps. Preventive measures have not helped much in reducing the number of fatal accidents on the two national highways which pass through the coastal-Malnad district.While 290 people died in accidents in the district in 2015, the numbers remained at the elevated levels in the subsequent years – 273 in 2016; 277 in 2017 and 275 in 2018.
In the last two years, 567 people died in road accidents in the district and most of them took place on National Highway-66 (Mangaluru-Mumbai) and NH-63 (Ankola-Hubballi). This accounts for an average of 270 accident-related deaths annually.While Ankola-Hubballi road was re-laid a couple decades ago, the Mangaluru-Mumbai road which stretches 130 km in Uttara Kannada from Bhatkal to Karwar is being four-laned and the work has been going for the last five years.
Following a direction from the Supreme Court, the police identified 20 black spots (where more than 10 persons were killed in accidents at a single spot or where more than five accidents took place within a span of three years) – 16 on NH-66 and four on NH-63) in the district.
Later, sign boards were installed and most of the blind curves straightened out. Yet the result has not been encouraging.A senior police officer said some of the identified black spots are not fixed and the departments concerned will review the roads. “Once the four-laning of the NH-66 is completed, the number of accidents will automatically come down,” he said.