Mumbai: Truck dash overhead railway gauge, brings Sion to a halt

In the second accident in Sion in a week, a trailer-truck rammed into a railway head gauge near Sion Hospital early on Tuesday morning, brought traffic to a screeching halt for more than an hour and a half. The accident took place on the south-bound road of Sion flyover at 6.30 am. The trailer-truck was removed from the spot two hours after the accident.

As per police reports, the trailer-truck, coming from Delhi, was on its way to South Mumbai. The driver, identified as Shaqir Hussain (30), failed to notice the overhead railway gauge and rammed the trailer-truck into the beam causing serious damage to the front of the vehicle.

Alerted by the locals, Sion police rushed immediately to the spot. Driver Hussain and the cleaner, identified as Haajim Khan (27), had sustained head and leg injuries.

Lalita Gaikwad, senior police inspector of Sion police station said, "We have to ascertain whether the driver was drunk or not or whether he was dozing while driving. As of now, we have admitted the driver and his aide to Sion hospital. We will record his statement when he recovers. If there is any violation, appropriate action will be taken against the defaulters."

"The driver has been booked for rash driving on a public way (Section 279) and causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others (section 338) of the Indian Penal Code. We have also seized the trailer-truck and are awaiting the medical reports of the duo," she added.

Following the accident, the Mumbai Traffic Police officials told DNA that they would be reviewing measures undertaken to prevent such unfortunate incidents and would coordinate with the authorities concerned on the same.

According to road expert Nikhil Desai, there might be two possible reasons behind such incidents. Firstly, drivers coming from other states are not well acquainted with the city roads and streets which leads to driving without knowing the locations precisely. Secondly, the traffic police, the railway authorities, the municipal officials and Mumbai police have not sufficiently contributed for road safety and hence when such incidents happen, the blame game yields no concrete result. "Also, proper markings should be put up at least 100 metres before such bridges. The guages should be painted in yellow and black colour so that they are visible even at night," said Desai.

Speaking to DNA, joint Commissioner of police, traffic, Amitesh Kumar said, "Necessary steps have been taken to avoid such mishaps at Sion. The railways were also intimated to put the thermoplastic signages at the spot. We would certainly be reviewing the measures undertaken so far."