Wake up to roadside dangers: Activists

Coimbatore: Activists have urged the district administration to take up a survey to enumerate wells located in close proximity to roads so that safety measures can be implemented to prevent deaths from accidents.
The demand comes in the wake of the death of three college students who drowned after the pickup van in which they were travelling plunged into a well in a farmland at Thondamuthur on Friday. Though there was a fence erected between the well and road, it was not enough to stop the speeding vehicle after the driver lost control of it, activists said.
C M Jayaraman, president of Citizens’ Voice Coimbatore, said village administrative officers will have the details of such wells already. “The district administration could collate that information. Officials could inspect each well and check the safety measures in place. They should ensure that safety is improved if it was insufficient.”
“Over the years in road safety meetings, we have asked officials on many occasions to divulge the information of wells located on the roadside, but they replied that no such data was available. It is high time officials collated such details and implemented safety measures to save lives,” he said.
Activists also said an inspection of wells on the roadside was carried out some six years ago following which safety measures were improved. A similar exercise should be carried out to check the present status. Construction of parapet walls around surface wells and erection of steel railings on the roadside can prevent such accidents, they said.
Secretary of the Coimbatore District Road Protection Association M Devendran said often safety was improved around roadside wells after something goes wrong. “This time the authorities should be proactive and find holistic solutions to the whole problem. Such approach could prevent many accidents.”