Breach puts brakes on traffic

CHENNAI: Several people driving through the 100 Feet Road at Ekkaduthangal had a providential escape on Monday when a 25-foot-long iron bar, which was fixed across the road to caution tall vehicles to avoid the stretch where Metro Rail construction was underway, came crashing down. The huge iron bar fell on the busy road after the roof of a tall truck hit it when the driver tried to squeeze through, ignoring warning boards, at 3.20 pm.Vehicles that were following the truck stopped inches short of the collapsed metal bar. “It was scary,” recalled a driver, who wished not to be named. “Seeing the tall truck moving under the cross-bar, I slowed down my car as I had the feeling that the vehicle will get stuck. The cross-bar wasn’t fixed properly and it came crashing down in the flash of a second after the rear portion of the lorry touched it when the vehicle jerked,” he added.People who witnessed the mishap blamed both the truck driver and the Metro contractor for the mishap. “The lorry driver should have avoided the stretch as there are warning signs banning tall vehicles on the stretch. And, the Metro contractor did not weld the cross bar to the pillars on both sides of the road,” an eyewitness said. As traffic came to a standstill on the road, Metro workers shifted the iron bar to the side of the road with the help of bystanders. Traffic on the road was affected for around 20 minutes.When Express contacted the Metro Rail spokesman, he squarely put the blame on the driver of the container lorry. “The stretch was banned for vehicles of this height. Despite the ban, the lorry driver entered the stretch and the top portion of the container collided with the iron bar,” the railway spokesman said, giving a clean chit to contractor.“When a truck is banned on the stretch, the truck driver violated the law. How could the contractor be blamed,” he asked.