Ill-preparedness of Noida Authority and Noida Traffic Police stood exposed on Wednesday as scores of commuters of Noida-Greater Noida Express Highway stranded in three-kilometre long traffic jam following an accident involving a BMW, Honda City and Scorpio. The accident left vehicular movement between Mahamaya flyover and Sector 127 paralysed for three hours.
The incident was reported at 5 am and Noida Traffic Police took three hours to remove the mangled vehicles from the road and traffic jam. Samajwadi Party MP Ram Gopal Yadav also stuck in the jam. Six people were injured in the accident and condition of three was stated to be critical.
The incident took place on Noida-Greater Noida side early morning when a speeding BMW car hit the divider near Sector 127. The car turned turtle and the occupant suffered grievous injuries. In the mean time, a Honda City hit the victim's car later another speeding Scorpio car also hit hard both cars from behind. The intensity of the accident was so high that most part of Honda city and Scorpio smashed.
Traffic police personnel reached the spot after two hours of accident and rescued the injured people from mangled vehicles by using cranes and gas cutter. The victims were admitted to Intensive Care Unit of Kailash Hospital in Noida later. The incident has raised questions about preparedness of the authority to tackle such tragedy ahead of foggy season. Earlier, the Noida Authority had also announced to improve lighting of the road to curb such menaces but no arrangement was visible this time.
Deputy Superintendent of Police (Traffic) of Noida Police Anil Kumar said that they are aware with this problem and are planning to increase traffic cops on the entire carriageway so the motorists could not face traffic snarls during the winter season. "As vehicles run with lesser visibility due to fog this time, we are planning to stop vehicles at various points by using barricades. We have also asked concerned police stations for cranes so we could remove jam immediately after accident," said the DSP.