COIMBATORE: A 51-year-old man died after falling from the newly constructed flyover on Tiruchy Road on Thursday morning. This is the third death since the flyover was inaugurated on 10 June. According to traffic investigation wing (TIW-east) of Coimbatore city police, M Anandakumar (51) of Townhall area, was speeding to his work site.
Though police imposed speed limit and installed rumble stripsto alert drivers, motorists seldom reduce speed, police said. Anandakumar passed over a rumble strip at high speed and could not control the vehicle. He rammed the parapet and plummeted from a height of 40 feet. He died on the spot.
Coimbatore Police Commissioner V Balakrishnan, DCP (Traffic) N Mathivanan and officials from the highways department inspected the accident spot on the flyover.
Balakrishnan directed Highways officials to install a wire mesh fence on the parapet for a height of three feet for the whole 3.15 km stretch of the flyover. Further it suggested that the height of parapet be increased by two feet at spots identified as accident prone.
"We have advised motorists to maintain speed limit of 40 kmph on the flyover and 30 kmph on the down ramp towards Sungam-Ukkadam road. The flyover has 10 rumble strips to reduce speed. But many motorists don’t follow the speed limits," said a senior police officer.
Inspector of TIW-East M Velmurugan said, "There are many speed breakers on the flyover, but motorists don’t slow down, due to which they lose control of the vehicle. Accidents can be prevented only if motorists cooperate with us."
The first accident on the flyover took place on June 12, when M Prasanth (28) died after his bike hit the parapet and fell down. On June 24, K Hariharan (19), a native of Karur, died when he fell off the flyover after his motorcycle rammed the parapet.
The flyover was reopened on Saturday after two weeks as the National Highways wing of State Highways installed ten rumble strips on it to reduce the speed limits. Above 1,000 reflective road studs have also been installed on the flyover to prevent accidents.