In 2019, the Transport Engineering Lab of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) recommended a slew of corrective measures to prevent accidents on the Yeshwantpur flyover. However, barring putting rumblers on the flyover to reduce the speed of vehicles, no other corrective measures have been implemented till date.
IISc had concluded that there was flyover design was flawed. “This is owing to the poor design of the horizontal curvature. The horizontal curve is very sharp (almost 90 degrees turn), which makes heavy vehicles vulnerable to accidents. With increase in speed of the vehicles on the flyover, the centrifugal force acting on the vehicles increases by many folds, throwing the vehicle off the flyover,” the study had then said.
Ashish Verma, Department of Civil Engineering, IISc, who led the study in 2019, said they had recommended for crash barriers to be increased to at least 2 m, among a host of other recommendations. However, Mr. Verma said apart from installing rumblers at either ends of the flyover, no other corrective measures were taken.
In the accident that occurred early on Tuesday, the car that was overspeeding lost control exactly at the steep curve, hit the road median and a bike coming on the opposite lane, flew over the existing crash barrier, which is less than 1 m, and fell to the ground. Had the crash barrier been higher, the car may have not fallen to the road below.
M.N. Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru, said a total of eight accidents have been reported at the particular spot on the flyover – six non-fatal and two fatal accidents since 2020. “We will get a study done of the spot and take suitable corrective measures,” he said.
