DHARMAPURI: Two fatal accidents in one week on Dharmapuri-Salem Road and spike in road accidents within municipal limits over the last few years have raised safety concerns and underscored poor safety awareness among residents in Dharmapuri. With Dharmapuri Municipality expanding at a brisk pace, traffic pileups have become a recurring trouble.
N Anandhan, a resident of Bharathipuram, said, "In the past week alone, two people have died on Dharmapuri-Salem road. Both the accidents occurred due to lack of road safety awareness. In one accident, a bus ran over a pedestrian while he was attempting to cross the road. While the fault partially lies with the bus driver, the pedestrian too had failed to follow road rules. Such accidents have become common now. Though mostly non-fatal, such accidents are still a huge concern. An awareness campaign is absolutely necessary."
Another resident, Arul Prakash from Dharmapuri, said, "Most of the roads in Dharmapuri are taken over for illegal parking. Nearly one-half of a road is utilized by businesses for parking vehicles. On the 8 km stretch between the collectorate and the Four-Road junction, there are hardly any speedbreakers. So, most people speed through the road and pedestrians are affected."
"To avert road accidents people must first wear helmets while driving two-wheelers. Pedestrians must use zebra crossings. People casually scale over road medians which is highly dangerous. We impose fine on people who violate traffic rules. In the future, we will increase the vigil," RTO officials said.
Police officials said, "Over the past few months we have started posting constables at all the key junctions within the town, and road violations have dropped drastically. We will take strict action against traffic violators."