RTI activist seeks midnight travel ban on UP e-ways

AGRA: An RTI activist has cited IIT Delhi’s safety audit report of 2019 to demand that the movement of vehicles on the Yamuna expressway and the Lucknow expressway be restricted from 1 am to 4 am.

The demand was made a day after seven members of a family died in a road mishap on the Yamuna expressway on Saturday.

KC Jain, the RTI activist who is also the secretary for Agra Development Foundation (ADF), said the ban on movement of vehicles was essential as most fatalities on expressways occurred from midnight to 6 am.

Jain had earlier filed litigation in Allahabad High Court and Supreme Court too on issues related to accidents on expressways and ways to prevent them.

Agra is connected with NOIDA through 165-kilometrelong Yamuna expressway and with Lucknow through the 302kilometre-long Agra Lucknow expressway.

These expressways have drastically reduced travel time but the frequency of road mishaps has been a cause of concern. “The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi’s safety audit report of April 29, 2019, that was based on the analysis done about road accidents on expressways from 2012 to 2018, highlighted that 21% of accidents on expressways took place between 6pm and 12 midnight, 43% accident took place between 12 midnight and 6 am while 36 % accidents were caused from 6 am to 6 pm. Thus, it is clear that 64% of accidents on expressways take place between 6 pm to 6 am next day but most of these are between 12 midnight and 6 am,” he said.

“Due to IIT Delhi’s report, we have made the demand to restrict entry of vehicles on expressways from 1 am to 4 am. This is the time when a driver is tired and starved of sleep,” he added.

“A vehicle moving at speed of 100 kilometers per hour travels 28 meters in a second and even a momentary error in concentration can lead to fatal accidents,” he said.

Jain, who is also a lawyer, said that IIT Delhi’s safety audit report had recommended speed check and suggested that speed be calculated in view of time taken between two toll plazas on the expressway.

“More and more interceptor cameras should be installed on expressways,” he said.