PANAJI
The road that curves past Bambolim, crossing the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Cujira educational complex and residential blocks, has become a corridor of grief.
Police sources told The Goan that letters had previously been sent to the Public Works Department (PWD) urging it to raise the height of the divider and install stronger signage along the entire Bambolim stretch including the Cujira corridor, where Tuesday’s accident took place.
“We had written to the PWD to increase the height of the divider along the entire stretch since there have been accidents taking place. There has been no response,” a senior police officer told The Goan.
In the early hours of Tuesday, two more lives were lost. Yogendar Singh, 42, President of the All India Sepak Takraw Association and a native of Delhi, and senior athlete Ankit Kumar Baliyan of Uttar Pradesh who were in Goa for a sporting tournament, died on the spot when a speeding tanker veered, rammed into the rental car, crossed the divider and toppled into the gorge below. The impact also destroyed a portion of the barrier and tore down road signage.
The Traffic Department has now decided to send a reminder with the officer adding, “We will write again. We have to.”
Just last month, two young Agniveers with the Indian Navy -- 22-year-old Harigovind P and 21-year-old Vishnu Jayaprakash, both from Kerala -- died late at night when their motorcycle collided with a divider at Bambolim while returning from Panaji.
Three weeks ago, a goods carrier ferrying steel pipes overturned when the driver braked abruptly. The heavy tubes crashed across the carriageway, with some even puncturing through a windshield.
In March, 21-year-old Chicalim resident Mahima Gawade was killed in a hit-and-run near the Athletic Stadium when a truck rammed into her two-wheeler and fled.
In January, a multiple-vehicle collision on the Bambolim-Panaji flyover left vehicles mangled but passengers miraculously unhurt. Last year, a couple barely survived when an entire wheel came off a moving truck and struck their bike ” the truck’s first wheel had already fallen off a kilometer earlier.
It was in April 2024 that two brothers, Achyut and Papu Gogoi, died in a self-accident near Holy Cross.
“These incidents are a pattern -- speed, alleged design flaws, poor signage, and other related issues which need quick rectification,” the source said.
