BRTS bus hits car on crossroads; experts rethink safety aspects ahead of October 14 launch.
Are the crossroads on the BRTS corridor safe? This question became a subject of discussion after the BRTS bus mishap at Pragatinagar on Saturday morning, especially when the launch of the swanky ride is scheduled on October 14. The mishap took place when work to lighten the BRTS corridor was going on.
The Maruti car coming from Pallavnagar wanted to take 'U' turn from Pragatinagar cross roads. When a BRTS squad man stopped the car driver, Mayank Patel, from taking 'U' turn as BRTS bus was coming near, Patel raced the car and tried to take 'U' turn from near the pedestrian space. At that time, the bus was entering the corridor.
Eyewitnesses say if car driver had waited for the bus to enter corridor, the accident could have been avoided. A squad man posted at the corridor says, "We stopped the car from entering cross roads as the bus was coming. He stopped for a while but then rushed in speed to take 'U' turn.
Fortunately both the drivers applied brakes on time and loss of life could be avoided," said Bharatbhai, a BRTS squad official.
Bharatbhai, who spends eight hours on protecting BRTS corridor, says cross roads are very dangerous points for commuters and pedestrians. The question is: are commuters at risk at every inter junctions, traffic signals, and space where BRTS runs in mix vehicular lane? There are around dozen places on the 12-km stretch from RTO to Chandranagar where BRTS bus, cycles, AMTS and other vehicles share road space. One such place is Akhbarnagar.
Chief planner of the BRTS project, Shivanand Swamy, says there is no problem where BRTS runs in mix vehicular lane. "We have been giving training to drivers and will continue giving them better training at certain period of time," said Swamy.
Director of Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL), UC Padia, says they cannot do away with running BRTS in mix vehicular lane at traffic junctions and cross roads. "At spaces where there is no place to come up with segregated BRTS corridors, the BRT will run in mix vehicular traffic. We have started thinking about the plan to avoid such accidents as self-disciplined traffic sense by commuters and drivers would avoid such accidents," added Padia.
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