Many motorists had a narrow escape when more than 50 iron-made barricades, put up by the Traffic Police on the Mahatma Gandhi Road as road divider, could not withstand the strong winds along with hailstorm and fell down with a thud on Thursday.
The barricades caused severe traffic jam on the ever-busy MG Road, whose cascading effect was seen on St Marks Road, Kamaraj Road, Brigade Road and the Residency Road. Some other barricades which withstood the storm scared the motorists of any possible harm if they were to crash on them.
Although the traffic was affected, the police did not show up even after the rains stopped. Four students of BMS College of Engineering at Basavanagudi studying architecture – Arpitha Shetty, Rehana Ashraf, Nirupama Vidyarthi and Aarti Bhatnagar, came forward to restore the fallen barricades. While they toiled, many motorists preferred to remain mute spectators.
Being responsible
The girls later told Deccan Herald that they had come to attend a farewell party of one of their friends on MG Road and were returning when they saw the collapsed barricades causing severe traffic jam.
They decided to stop for a while, do their duty as responsible citizens and leave the place.
The accident raised the question mark over the way the barricades were put as they often come down crashing. A shopkeeper complained that the barricades had caused a severe damage to a motorist, who broke his arm recently.
He said, “It was midnight when this barricade fell on a young boy, who was driving at a moderate speed. Due to the helmet, he survived but he broke his arm. Given the nature of injury, we thought, his arm may be amputated.”