veritable death-traps

text of the letter sent to TOI:

I refer to the report about the car crash in Krishnagiri (on the Bangalore-Chennai express-way) resulting in the death of two young men, and serious injuries to a young lady, published in your columns on the 29th, under the caption 'car did 90 km in one hour'.

The whole idea of building 'tolled' express-ways is to enable fast travel, and, with modern cars matching up in performance, 90 kmph speed is passe'. Now, out of the toll amounts collected, apart from keeping the roads in good repair, one would have expected that the contractors are required to carry out rigorous patrolling to ensure that traffic violations (by a local bus), of the kind that led to the accident, do not happen. Very clearly, that's not quite the case, turning these express-ways into veritable death-traps. The bereaved relatives will be doing a great service to the public by lodging hefty compensation claims in order that appropriate lessons are learnt for the future.

Also, no credible effort seems to have ever been put in by the State in educating the rural folk living along these road stretches, and using them for their daily chores, on even basic safety aspects.