Several roads in the town and its suburbs have, in recent times, seen the installation of speed breakers near schools and hospitals and at intersections to slow down vehicular movement to facilitate pedestrian/vehicular crossings.
While speed breakers are essential for road safety, they become counter-productive if they are not laid in a scientific manner.
Just a few days ago, the Public Works Department had installed speed breakers up to a point from Thattanchavadi Industrial Estate near the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, following a fatal accident involving a two-wheeler and a lorry.
The milk vendor victim was crushed to death under the wheel of a speeding lorry. The officials quickly installed speed breakers on the road, but these look like mounds spread on the road.
“It is a good move to install speed breakers immediately after the accident to prevent them from happening again,” he said. But the bumps were not placed according to the rules. When I was going to work in the morning, there was no speed breaker on the road. But while returning in the evening, I noticed that the vibe was filled with them. I suddenly had to brake. The car which was behind me almost collided with my two-wheeler,” said a JIPMER employee. He said there were neither paint marks nor reflectors on the speed breakers.
Thilaspet resident G. According to Raghavendra, most of the speed breakers in Puducherry were made in an unscientific way. “Dozens of humps have been made on the road connecting Villianur and Murungapakkam. None of them were laid out in a scientific way. Motorists, especially two-wheeler riders, cling to the side of the road to avoid possible damage to their vehicles and break their backs,” he said.
Kaumar, a resident of Lawspet, said many speed breakers were very bumpy, and people were more likely to fall from their vehicles. “If the speed breakers are not properly marked, street lights are not working and visibility is poor, then there is a very high chance of an accident happening,” he said.
According to a traffic police official, no fatal accidents involving speed breakers have been reported in the recent past. However, minor accidents occur when the vehicle hits the rear due to sudden braking.
According to a member of the Road Safety Committee, speed breakers should be made by providing a hump of 3.7 m width and 0.10 m height for the preferred advisory crossing speed of 25 kmph. In some places, speed breakers must be repeated in one section to limit the speed of the vehicle throughout the section.
The dimensions as well as the specifications of the markings and sign boards have been prescribed by the Indian Roads Congress. “Speed breakers should be painted with optional black and white bands. Speed breakers should have retro-reflective markings to make them more visible at night. Also, embedded cat-eye can be used to increase visibility at night,” the official said.
The best way to install speed breakers was to get input from the traffic police on the places where they are to be installed. He said that the inputs should be included in the planning and design phase of the road work.
There were several minor roads, especially the one connecting the East Coast Road, where speed breakers were absolutely necessary to slow down vehicles. He said that a proper study should be done by the traffic police to identify such places so that traffic deceleration devices can be placed.