Citizens who live in a residential pocket of HBR Layout have had to contend with speeding vehicles on cross roads, which has led to high fatality of stray animals, especially dogs.
A community of dog lovers in the layout that takes care of the strays in the area have raised the issue of how there have been several accidents involving dogs.
“Several puppies have been killed instantly by speeding cars. Older dogs have survived encounters at the cost of multiple injuries. One dog is deaf due to an accident, leaving him at the mercy of the cars he doesn’t see. Due to this, he recently injured his front leg and has to limp around with a bandage. This is just one of the many dogs in the street that have faced serious injuries,” said Rakshitha Govindaraju, resident and entrepreneur.
“Those in danger of being hurt are also children, who can only play on the street, and elderly people, who will not be able to move fast enough to avoid any speeding vehicle,” noted Jayesh, a security guard on the road.
Increase in accidents
According to residents, the road, which is lined with apartments, has seen an increasing number of speeding incidents since the road was tarred again in the previous months. They also said that such incidents occur more during the night, early hours of the morning and during weekends.
Ms. Govindaraju said, “In the nights in particular, you can hear people drift, you can hear tires screeching. Most of these roads are very homely, they have small, regular houses but ours is the only one which has apartments. This allows drivers, generally those going to the end of the lane, to speed through it, putting everyone in their path at risk.”
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“The accidents have been happening for many years. These people go by at high speeds and don’t listen to anyone,” said Selvi and her husband, who own a shop in the lane. The residents noted that the lack of streetlights at night increases the safety concerns. “Repeated appeals to the drivers to slow down have been unsuccessful,” said Manjula, a resident.
BBMP’s response
The residents of the area are clear as to what they think the main solution is; the addition of a speed breaker on the 24th Cross road (where most speeding incidents are observed) in order to slow down vehicles. However, their letters requesting the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for the same have not yielded any results, despite receiving a response from the Chief Civic Commissioner’s office saying that appropriate action would be taken by the zonal officers.
When contacted, the East Zone BBMP officials said, “Speed humps can be put by the traffic engineering cell (TEC) at head office as per the request. Will send the letter through chief engineer to TEC in another one or two days to take immediate action to put speed humps.” The residents are awaiting the resolution of the issue as assured by officials.
The incidents of dogs being run over by speeding vehicles have been continuously flagged by animal activists in the city, especially in the last couple of years. Speaking about the same, Arun Prasad, a social activist, said, “The most important thing is to sensitise the public to their responsibility when it comes to animal-related accidents. He has also been pushing for a section about the ethics of driving from the RTO at the time of issuing licences to educate the public further.
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