Don't just blame potholes: Experts

Mumbai: Despite Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s assurances, the city roads are still riddled with potholes, causing traffic jams but according to experts, these potholes cannot be held responsible for road accidents.

Dhawal Ashar, a senior project associate with the World Resource Institute (WRI) said that mostly bikers are the ones who are the most vulnerable of being victims of potholes. He said, “The bikers have nothing to protect them except their helmets. This coupled with the fact that sometimes they are unable to spot a pothole due to a bigger vehicle blocking their view, leads them to being more prone to accidents.”

Sudhir Badami, a transport expert who consults various government committees on road safety, feels that often it is not the potholes, that injure the motorist but the tendency of vehicles behind them to run over them.

Ravishankar Rajara-man a researcher at J.P. Research Pvt. Ltd. Who specialises in crash tests said that in his opinion, motorists actually tend to slow down when they know that the road is not smooth enough to speed. He said, “I think that blaming the potholes is a very myopic way to look at accidents. Instead of blaming the potholes, we should consider other things that predominantly contribute to accidents, like engineering, design and signal systems.”

Vijayshree Pednekar who heads her own transport research firm says, “When you are riding on a highway like JVLR or the Eastern Freeway, the potholes are a cause of concern as motorists tend to stand a risk of loosing control of their vehicle. But, in case of intercity roads, potholes tend to cause traffic jams and can’t be considered as a cause of accidents.”