MADURAI: Noting that a huge number of accidents has been taking place in the Fatima College-Samayanallur stretch of the Madurai-Dindigul Highway allegedly due to poor road safety measures, a bench of Justices MS Ramesh and AD Maria Clete of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court said on Thursday that they would inspect the above road stretch on November 29. The judges stated so while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition that sought for a direction to resolve the said issue.
In the earlier hearing, the Samayanallur deputy superintendent of police had filed a report stating that 399 accidents have been reported from 2018 to October 2024, including 104 fatal accidents, in the Samayanallur police station limits. On Thursday, the deputy commissioner of police (traffic) also submitted a report which revealed that nearly 88 accidents have taken place in the road stretch in the city limits during the above period and 22 of them had been fatal. The petitioner's counsel also pointed out that nearly 50% of the accidents were concentrated in a few areas.
Considering the gravity of the issue, the judges decided to conduct a spot inspection on November 29. The case was adjourned to December 3. In the meantime, the president of Samayanallur village panchayat and the authorities of Paravai town panchayat and Madurai west panchayat union assured to provide adequate street lights for the highway in their respective jurisdiction to avoid such accidents in future.
Contempt proceedings recalled
In the previous hearing, the judges had initiated suo motu contempt proceedings against the divisional engineer (highways) for failing to appear before the court despite an order. Since the official explained that by the time the order was communicated to him, he was already on a train towards Chennai for a meeting and hence was unable to comply with the order, the judges recalled the contempt proceedings.