Dirt prime culprit in accident-prone Mysore Road flyover

There may be many reasons why riders fall off two-wheelers. Sometimes, it is a result of speeding, overtaking from the wrong side or being struck by another vehicle, but on the Mysore Road flyover, falls are common because of the fine layer of sand which collects over the motorway.

According to sources, the flyover is witness to at least five or six two-wheeler crashes every day. One eyewitness with a ringside seat of the accidents is Mohit Lal, a pawnbroker in Chamarajpet, who told Deccan Herald that he has seen so many crashes that the sound of screeching tyres and the clatter of metal hitting the asphalt is nothing new for him.

“Dirt accumulates for days on the flyover and remains there for a long time. There is no effort by the authorities to make the flyover free of this,” he said, adding that even though the sanitation workers appear each morning to sweep the area, they simply heap the dirt into neat piles, but fail to clear them from the road.

“The situation is extremely dangerous as anyone riding over the dirt is at risk of a fall,” he said. “Many of those who fall escape being run over by other heavy vehicles travelling at high speed narrowly”

This is not the case only with this flyover but the same condition prevails on ring roads and on other flyovers at KR Puram, Hebbal and Lingrajapuram.

A senior BBMP official said, “Every week we ask the contractors to send workers to clear the sand from the flyover. They gather small heaps of dirt at the sides of the roads and later forget to dispose them of. The same dirt becomes dispersed by the wind and settles on the road again.”

He did not, however, agree that the BBMP should monitor such actions daily. “We cannot always monitor the cleaning of roads. It is up to the contractor who has been assigned the job to make sure the work is carried out properly,” he said.

Nagamma (name changed), who sweeps dirt on the flyover, said that it is a daunting task to clear debris from the motorway. “Deposits of sand are abundant, plus there is the heavy traffic, which leaves us worried about our safety as we have not been provided with any safety gear,” she said.