Expressway witnesses three accidents every day, highway hypnosis major reason

The six-lane road is a completely Greenfield project. While its swathes of six-lane concrete roads with clear lane markings are deemed to be a delight for drivers, its arrow straight lanes also pose a unique problem of visual fatigue with the driver witnessing the same scenery and having to drive on a monotonous road stretch.

This is deemed to cause highway hypnosis which is the biggest cause of accidents on the Samruddhi Mahamarg. Highway hypnosis occurs when individuals zone out while driving a vehicle. According to Additional Director General (Traffic) Maharashtra, Ravinder Singal, since the highway is new, there are no hoardings or billboards on the roadsides or hotels/dhabas that would distract a driver’s mind. This can sometimes lead to serious accidents.

“Due to continuous driving on a monotonous stretch for long hours, the drivers kind of get hypnotized and sometimes lose control and reach a state when there is a temporary disconnect between the brain and body’s action. This results in the driver losing control of the vehicle and leads to accidents,” Singal said.

As per the statistics maintained by the state highway police till date, as many as 39 fatal accidents have occurred on the Samruddhi Mahamarg in which 88 people have died. Nearly 87 serious accidents occurred in which 232 people were left with severe injuries and 215 accidents occurred in which 428 people sustained minor injuries, while 275 accidents occurred in which motorists escaped with no injuries.

The officials of state highway police said that of the total 616 accidents, the majority of the incidents (188) occurred due to highway hypnosis, followed by other causes such as speeding (105) and tyre burst (103). Till June 30, 2023, speeding was the biggest cause of fatal accidents on the new expressway claiming 25 lives. The highway police have also recorded that the majority of the accidents (180) have occurred between 6am and 12pm.

Preliminary police inquiry in Saturday’s Buldhana accident has revealed that the driver of the travel bus felt sleepy and lost control over wheels leading to the deadly accident. This is a sign of Highway Hypnosis, a phenomenon that motorists usually experience during long, uninterrupted drives on highways.

Due to Highway Hypnosis, on May 24 this year, four members of two families from Surat died on the spot while another member sustained injuries when the car they were travelling in met with an accident. The incident occurred in Aurangabad district.

The state had taken cognisance of the dangers of highway hypnosis and had recently decided to put up flags and reflectors after every half an hour-long stretch to catch the motorist’s attention and keep their brains busy and active and prevent accidents.

Tyres bursting is also one of the major causes of road accidents on the express highway and is a concern for the authorities. Tyre burst cases are majorly reported during the summer as high temperature puts more air pressure inside of the tyres leading to the rubber heating up and eventually bursting. Other reasons are rash driving, speeding and over-loading of passengers. The authorities concerned are trying to put in the same measures that were implemented to bring down the number of accidents on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. The highway police have been requesting motorists and through checkpoints to ensure that the motorists check their car’s health, especially discarding worn out tyres and also checking the appropriate air pressure of tyres.

Experts believe that bus operators do not strictly follow road safety rules and guidelines and make drivers run buses for long hours, exceeding safety hours and risk passenger’s lives. Road Safety and Transport expert Dattatray Saste, who had worked as technical advisor in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), said, “Strict implementation of rules that restrict drivers of passenger buses from exhausting over working hours is necessary.

Installing electronic tachograph or digital tachograph, which records speed, distance, driving periods, breaks, journey distance, and driver’s activity, should be made compulsory at least for passenger buses and hazardous carriers. This digital device will record the driver’s working hours behind the wheels and would not allow him to operate the vehicle if it exceeds the safety limit of driving.