The Free Press Journal’s exclusive report on October 5 (‘New Height Barrier To Come Up Near King’s Circle’) highlighted the recurring incidents of heavy vehicles crashing into the King’s Circle railway bridge’s height barriers.
It focused on how a spate of letters by the Railways to the BMC finally led to the permission to erect a new barrier near Sion Hospital. This will prevent tall vehicles and containers, which have missed road signages to not take the route, from coming anywhere near the bridge.
While officials said that the foundation of the bridge is still strong, frequent accidents can result in derailment. This is the second and final part in the series. It highlights how vehicles from other states have little or no knowledge about the city.
The pressure of quick transportation from owners forces drivers to unsuccessfully speed past the bridge. They mostly get stuck under it, especially in lane 3 that has a clearance of only 4.3m when the acceptable standard is 5m.
A senior officer from Sion police station said that most drivers have no clue about the height barrier. “Drivers of containers, trucks and trolleys engage in speeding at night and, hence, don’t pay attention to the signage ‘bridge area’ ahead of King’s Circle.”
Matunga traffic division officials said it has sent several notices to the BMC as well as to the railways to address the issue. “As these incidents occur mostly during the night, installing reflectors on both sides of the height gauge and the bridge will allow drivers to notice the instructions,” an official said, adding that these suggestions were incorporated in the letter.
Senior Inspector (Traffic) Haridas Killedar said, “The height gauge is just a few metres ahead of the bridge. Instead, if it’s placed near the Sion flyover, the situation could get better.”
Height barriers with lights near Sion Hospital and Dadar flyover Maheshwari Udyan-Tulpule Chowk flyover will be helpful, he said, adding that a suggestion to have speed bumpers were also given to the railways and the BMC.
“We have four officers who work at night. Two are deployed at the Matunga chowki and the other two at Sion. If any such incident occurs in our presence, we pull the vehicle back without damaging the bridge and inform the police station to take necessary action,” said another traffic official.
Pointing outthat most drivers take the King’s Circle route instead of the assigned route for heavy vehicles near Priyadarshini Circle in Sion, the official said, “It’s the owner’s responsibility to guide the driver about such sensitive and vital routes and information, especially when he is an outsider. If the drivers are given proper route instructions, they would not rely on Google Maps, which usually suggests the fastest route. More than drivers, owners are at fault.”
The Sion police, which has registered several complaints of negligence and damaging public property against such drivers, said that these drivers hardly know about height barriers or Mumbai’s traffic rules.
“They are usually released on bail as they aren’t doing it intentionally, rather simply following the instructions givenby their owners,” said a police official.
Ex-corporator Rajeshree Shirwadkar suggested that the traffic police should divert heavy vehicles to the Mumbai Port Trust way. “I had written a letter to the Matunga traffic division in 2020. But due to Covid, no response was received. Now the BMC has given permission to the railways to put height barriers near Sion Hospital. Hope it will resolve the issue.”
