MADURAI: Justices MS Ramesh and AD Maria Clete of the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court inspected the measures undertaken by the Madurai district authorities to prevent accidents in the Fatima College-Samayanallur stretch of the Madurai-Dindigul Highway on Friday evening.
The judges were accompanied by additional advocate general Veera Kathiravan, government pleader P Thilak Kumar and authorities from various departments including corporation, highways department and police. The authorities informed the judges that based on their directions, they had identified seven accident-prone areas in the stretch where there was a huge gap between the medians. The said median gaps, measuring around 20 m in total, have been closed.
Inspecting the actions taken, the judges further suggested removing the U-Turn permitted in front of Fatima College and minimizing the median gap there so that only pedestrians are able to pass through. They also recommended the authorities to shift the median gap near the Mangayarkarasi College of Arts and Science for Women and place it in front of the college.
The judges made the inspection after noting that a huge number of accidents was taking place in the said stretch allegedly due to poor road safety measures. The issue was brought to light when the above judges, sitting in a division bench, were hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition filed by N Senthil Kumar seeking a solution to the aforementioned problem.
Following reports submitted by the Samayanallur deputy superintendent of police and the deputy commissioner of police (traffic) in the previous hearings, the judges had come to know that from 2018 to October 2024, nearly 399 accidents (including 104 fatal) were reported in the Samayanallur police limits and 88 accidents (including 22 fatal) were reported in the city limits in the above road stretch. This prompted them to conduct the inspection. The petition would be heard again on December 3.