This story is from September 17, 2020

Barriers placed near Khambatki tunnel on Pune-Satara highway

The Highway Safety Patrol (HSP) has installed tyre barriers that have reflector stripes on the sidelines of the accident-prone ‘S’ curve near the Khambatki tunnel on the Pune-Satara highway to reduce the impact of vehicle crash in case of an accident.
Barriers placed near Khambatki tunnel on Pune-Satara highway
An HSP officer installing tyres and reflective strips
PUNE: The Highway Safety Patrol (HSP) has installed tyre barriers that have reflector stripes on the sidelines of the accident-prone ‘S’ curve near the Khambatki tunnel on the Pune-Satara highway to reduce the impact of vehicle crash in case of an accident.
Vehicles heading towards Pune from Satara tend to speed after crossing the Khambatki tunnel owing to a downward gradient. Often, drivers find it difficult to negotiate turns on the ‘S’ curve at high speed and crash into the sideline.

The problem is more acute at night. The tyre barriers are aimed at reducing such impact and save lives in event of accidents, an HSP official said.
Pritam Yavalkar, additional superintendent of police, HSP Pune, said “The ‘S’ shaped curve is difficult to negotiate at high speed especially at night. Many drivers fail to spot the edge of the roads when it gets dark and they leave the road surface resulting in accidents.”
“We want to reduce highway fatalities, especially at this site. Thus, we decided to install tyres on the railings where generally vehicles leave the road surface at a high speed. We have also pasted reflective strips on the tyres to highlight the edges or banks of the road surface,” he added.
Yavalkar said, “The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has started work at the site, which connects the tunnel to the highway straight avoiding the ‘S’ curve but, until the work is complete, the HSP decided to install tyres to reduce the impact during an accident. We hope that this will reduce the accidents on the stretch,” he said.
In April 2018, 18 persons were killed and 19 persons were injured when a tempo swerved off the ‘S’ shaped curve.
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