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Regular-article-logo Tuesday, 16 April 2024

Beacon lights for traffic guardrails

Bidhannagar cops in action after accident

A Staff Reporter Calcutta Published 26.11.19, 08:38 PM
Guardrails placed on the Salt Lake-bound flank of Major Arterial Road in New Town

Guardrails placed on the Salt Lake-bound flank of Major Arterial Road in New Town Telegraph file picture

The traffic guardrails on New Town roads will be fitted with LED beacon lights to make them more visible to motorists, especially at night, police said.

The move comes a day after a Maruti Brezza rammed into a guardrail on Tuesday night and went on to hit a scooter, injuring two sisters.

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The sisters were returning home after watching a film. The accident took place on the Major Arterial Road East-West Extension in New Town.

The police said the medical report of the driver of the Maruti Brezza, Kaushik Bera, showed that he had consumed alcohol beyond the permissible limit.

An officer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate said to make the guardrails more visible, reflective tapes and signage such as “Go Slow” would be placed on them.

“We have started the work and it will be done in phases. Unknown people had in the past taken off many LED blinkers that had been fixed on guardrails. We are looking at a more secure locking mechanism that will fix them to the rails,” said the officer.

Metro reported earlier this month how guardrails, painted in blue and white, were more of a traffic hazard as those are barely visible from a distance. The problem increases at night and is compounded by the fact that fog settles in in the late hours.

The police said they had scanned footage from CCTV cameras placed along the road and preliminary investigations based on the footage revealed that the car had travelled from Unitech bus stop to the traffic signal in front of the Uniworld City complex, a distance of 1.80km, in 60 seconds.

“At one point the car was speeding in excess of 110kmph,” the officer said.

Bera’s car hit the scooter Nisha Giri, 29, was driving and the impact threw Neha Giri, 27, who was riding pillion, into the air.

Neha is on ventilator at the Institute of Neurosciences Kolkata, in Mullickbazar. “She is still critical,” an official of the hospital said.

The police said the left front wheel’s tyre had burst on impact but Bera still managed to drive the car for around 3km before parking it by the roadside near the Sukhobrishti housing complex.

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