Delhi-Meerut Expressway Accident: ‘Treat wrong-side drivers as murderers’

For no fault of theirs, six of a family perished after the Mahindra TUV-3oo they were travelling in collided with an empty school bus coming from the wrong side in the fastest—overtaking—lane of the Delhi-Meerut expressway on Tuesday.

The family was on their way from Meerut to the famed temple of Khatu Shyam in Rajasthan.

Accident on Delhi-Meerut expressway between a school bus and car. Several feared dead. pic.twitter.com/tCmPdUx7GI

— Anand Singh (@Anand_Journ) July 11, 2023

The school-bus driver, the police said, had entered from an exit on the highway near Ghazipur. What could be more bizarre, the driver and his bus kept going on the wrong side for over eight kilometers before ramming into the ill-fated SUV.

As usual, the police have arrested the bus driver. The investigation is on, like always.
Was it a design fault in the highway that resulted in the fatal accident, just an errant driver or police callousness?

As per available data, the Delhi-Meerut Expressway is fast assuming the notoriety of being a high-speed killer stretch. There have been 167 fatal accidents in 2022 alone on the E-way, resulting in 106 deaths and 125 injured.

Road safety expert Sarika Panda Bhat, who runs the Raahgiri Foundation, attributed wrong-side driving, apart from errant behavior, to the lack of proper U-turn facilities and authorised access points.

“National Highway, which generally cross residential areas, require more surveillance, as well as planning,” Bhat told Firstpost.

Meanwhile, Dr Sewa Ram, professor and head of department of transport planning at IIT Delhi, said he was devastated
when he watched the CCTV footage that captured the accident.

“Wrong side driving should be considered as murder,” said Sewa Ram, adding, “If one person is following the rules and the other person is not, then it’s the responsibility of the government to save the life of the one who is abiding by the law.”

Access points of the expressway should be rigourously monitored via CCTV cameras, said Sewa Ram, along with physical surveillance in order to discourage people who take such extreme steps as entering and driving on the wrong side of roads, especially high-speed corridors, such as expressways.

“Police will have to start prosecuting such people in order to instill some driving sense in the drivers,” he said.
“If, at all, there is any design fault, such as an absence of an exit or U-turn then, authorities should immediately audit the highway and correct it.”

Meanwhile, the SUV had eight members of a family: brothers Narendra Yadav (45) and Dharmendra Yadav (42); their wives, Anita (42) and Babita (38), respectively; Narendra’s sons Himanshu (12) and Karkit (15); and Dharmendra’s son Aryan (8) and daughter Vanshika (7).

While six of them were pronounced dead on the spot, Dharmendra and his son Aryan reportedly survived the crash, sustaining grievous injuries.

Ghaziabad’s DCP (Traffic) Ramanand Kushwaha, however, told Firstpost that even as all the 500 traffic cops are available for field duty strong, including checkpoints on the expressway to monitor wrong-side driving, checking does not happen in the early morning and late night hours.