What's causing mishaps on the stretch near Urse toll booth?

The recent accident at the Urse toll plaza that killed four persons on Wednesday has highlighted several problems which lead to frequent accidents on that particular stretch of the road. The foremost factor is that the toll naka stretch is a straight and smooth road which tempts the commuters to drive at a high speed. The rumble strips -- that vibrate a vehicle and wake up dozing drivers -- are also not placed at correct distance. They therefore mar the judgment of a speeding vehicle’s driver.

Another problem pointed out several times by experts is wrong way of lane-cutting by vehicles, the same reason which led to Wednesday’s gruesome accident. The four persons in the vehicle were sandwiched between two vehicles while cutting lane on the highway. Experts said that lack of effective highway traffic policing result in heavy vehicles and speeding cars often cutting lanes to get into empty toll booths.

“There are eight toll booths and we have asked the personnel manning them to put up barricades to discourage commuters from jumping lanes. We have been carrying out drives against overspeeding, rash driving and lane-cutting. We are also planning to paste stickers at various places which will help to educate commuters about the importance of lane discipline,” superintendent of police (highway) Dilip Bhujbal, said.

The expressway stretch near the Urse toll plaza has a peculiar problem which has made this spot mishap-prone. For a commuter, the drive on the stretch, on either side of Urse toll plaza, is extremely monotonous with the road being a straight patch. This provokes the commuters to drive at a very high speed and drivers often doze off. Another problem specific to the spot is the dividers, which are either missing or are very small in height.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), when asked, said they had no plans to make road dividers in this stretch. They have, however, floated a tender for installing Brifen wires in the area to prevent lane-cutting by vehicles.

MSRDC’s executive engineer AP Abrol said, “We have rolled out a tender for the Brifen wire ropes that we are going to install on a stretch of 25 km, which will also cover the Urse toll plaza. Three companies have approached us so far and I feel that the work will be over by the end of this year.”

Past mishaps at Urse toll booth
October 2, 2013
Four citizens died in a freak accident on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway early on Wednesday, after their car got sandwiched between a speeding truck and another Innova car at Urse toll plaza.

July, 08, 2013
Two toll collection booths of Urse toll plaza on Mumbai-Pune expressway were gutted in a fire. A major tragedy was averted as fire brigade gained control over the fire on time. No one was hurt.

March 20,2013
Falling asleep for a few seconds while driving on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway proved deadly for the driver and co-driver of a truck trailer carrying metal coils. The driver lost control over the heavy vehicle and it hit a pillar of the Guru Waman overbridge near Urse toll plaza. Both of them were killed on the spot.

December 25, 2012
In a tragic incident near Urse toll plaza, well-known Marathi actors Anand Abhyankar (49) and Akshay Pendse (35) along with a two-year-old boy were killed while two others received minor injuries when their car was hit by a speeding goods carrier.

NGO to install CCTVs on E-way by month-end

Mumbai-based NGO Fulora Foundation will soon install 10 CCTV cameras on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. It will also add 10 trauma care ambulances to its fleet.

The project is being headed by Tanmay Pendse, brother of well known actor Akshay Pendse (33) who died in an accident on the E-way on December 23 last year. After losing his brother and his 2-year-old nephew Pratyush, Tanmay Pendse took it upon himself to prepare a safety project that will help in averting accidents and save lives on the Pune-Mumbai Expressway. For this project, he tied up with Fulora Foundation.

The NGO had been already working on a project of installing 200 CCTV cameras, one at every 500 meters. After seeking permission from various departments, it decided to start by installing 10 CCTV cameras.

Tanmay Pendse (29), a businessman and Fulora’s project director for Safety on E-way, said, “We have been working on this project for quite sometime. In August we installed CCTV at Khandala and after we got clearance from the highway traffic department, we planned to install 10 CCTV cameras at places like Amrutanjan Bridge, Bhor Ghat, and Urse toll plaza. We will conduct a meeting this weekend and decide on other locations. We will try to finish the work before the end of this month.”

There have been instances where people lost their lives because of lack of ambulances or because the ambulances were not equipped with modern technology. Fulora Foundation is now planning to start trauma care ambulances to fill this gap.
“As of now we have four trauma care ambulances and we are trying to get 10 more, so that there will have one ambulance every 10 km. We have tied up with 300 hospitals in Mumbai and Pune as the ambulance will also have doctors available 24X7. We are going to provide this service for the next five years,” Pendse further said.

The NGO is purchasing a trauma care ambulance at an estimated cost of Rs12 lakh each along with equipment such as gas cutter and a medical kit which will cost around Rs3 lakh. “For fund raising we have got foreign currency acceptance from the Central Government. We are also contacting a few banks and corporates for help under their CSR activity.”

Superintendent of police (highway) Dilip Bhujbal, said, “With additional ambulances, it will be a boon as the 93-km Pune-Mumbai Expressway will be safer and immediate medication can be given to the patients if we have an ambulance at every 10 km. Of the four ambulances available on E-way now, one is at Urse toll plaza, one at Malavali and two at Rajgad.”