BENGALURU: The busy Electronics City flyover continues to be a danger spot for motorists in the city. Traffic police officials put the blame on rash driving for such accidents. As many as 45 accidents have already been recorded on the stretch this year, with over 60 per cent of them involving two-wheelers.
Although the flyover has helped reduce travel time to the tech hub of Electronics City, the road has also turned out to be a way to seek thrill for youngsters, many of whom are IT professionals or college students using high-end bikes such as KTM or Yamaha R15. Following the construction of the flyover, travel time to Electronics City from Silk Board junction has been reduced to 10 minutes.
“Because it is a national highway, people hurry and travel at a speed of 80-90 km/ hour. A lot of rash driving takes place,” said K V Jagadeesh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic (East). No measures have been taken by the traffic police to curb the situation, he added.
The 9-km flyover comes under three police station limits - Madiwala, Hulimavu and Electronics City.
“A five-km stretch comes under the EC limits and per month, there are two to four accidents involving two-wheelers. The rest of the flyover comes under other station limits,” M A Mohammed, an inspector at Electronics City traffic police station, said.
Experts say a possible solution is banning slow-moving vehicles on highways. “There was a proposal four years ago to not allow two-wheelers on the flyover, but that was scrapped and no action was taken. This is an enforcement issue. At one end of the highway, there are toll booths which can monitor or prevent such vehicles from entering,” traffic expert M N Shreehari said.
Urban expert V Ravichandar, however, disagreed on banning two-wheeler riders, and suggested radar monitoring, and serving notices and fines on the offenders as ways to curb the problem.
“There is a tendency to pick up speed in a traffic-free zone. Awareness must be spread, along with enforcement, like a speed limit of 60 km/hr, where the person only needs to spare two to three minutes and save his life,” he said.
Last year, two major fatal accidents took place on the road, with two software engineers dying in separate incidents. In the first incident, a 28-year-old professional working in Infosys plummeted from the elevated expressway after his two-wheeler rammed into the retaining wall. He was heading home after work. In another incident, a 38-year-old software engineer was killed after he crashed into the retaining wall near the EC-2 lane. He was taking a turn towards the Phase-2 down ramp lane when he lost control.