Bereaved father makes safety his business

After the death of his son, Ashok, 11 years ago in a road accident, retd Customs official H K Puri decided to do his bit to try and improve the driving conditions on the Haryana roads.

After the death of his son, Ashok, 11 years ago in a road accident, retd Customs official H K Puri decided to do his bit to try and improve the driving conditions on the Haryana roads.

Ashok, then 27, had stopped at a crossing at Pipli in Kurukshetra, waiting for his turn to cross the road. Suddenly, a Haryana Roadways bus, which had jumped a red light, hit him, crushing him under its wheels. Doctors said Ashok could have been saved had he received immediate medical attention. It was then that Puri decided to do something to provide safety to other commuters.

“I read a lot and learnt that most road accidents result in loss of life only due to lack of proper medical facilities nearby. I also found that most accidents occur due to absence of safety regulations and failure of agencies to enforce traffic rules,” says the octogenarian.

His efforts have borne fruit. As a result of PIL filed by Puri in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1998, the Governments of Punjab and Haryana were forced to establish trauma case centres on national highway and state roads. The four-laning of the Delhi-Ambala highway was also done after his initiative. The ongoing project to make Chandigarh-Ambala, Zirakpur-Solan, Jalandhar-Pathankot, Jalandhar-Amritsar and Amritsar-Pathankot NH stretches into four lane is also a result of his efforts.

Continuous efforts by him resulted in the Haryana Government creating the Haryana Highway Patrol and Road Safety Cell on January 3, 2000. Haryana was also ordered to set up traffic aid centres 30 km apart on the NH and state roads.

Ex-Navy man strives to rectify killer road

SILVASSA: A former Naval officer, Savitra Singh Raju, has taken upon himself the responsibility of rectifying a “killer stretch”, which had claimed many lives. The state highway, connecting Vapi Crossroads on NH 8 to Silvassa, has an area near Bhilad village in Umbergaon Taluka of Valsad district, where accidents occur frequently. The area lies on the Dharoti River Bridge at Bhilad village. The road on both ends of the bridge is curved, leading to low visibility and at least one mishap everyday. The chances of fatality increase with 20-feet deep ditches alongside the road. Raju took up the cause after he himself became the victim of an accident here. Two months ago, he was travelling with his friends, when their Tata Sumo overturned near the bridge.