The Kerala High Court on Wednesday observed that a protocol on security and safety measures at ongoing worksites to avert accidents must be formulated and implemented.
Justice Devan Ramachandran also observed that the engineers and officers in charge of the work will have to be made primarily accountable, and unless penalties which operate as deterrents were imposed, accidents at these sites would remain a continuing saga.
The court made these observations when it was brought to its notice the death of a biker after plunging into a ditch near a bridge construction site at Thripunithura.
The court said the fact that the engineers and contractors were taken to task after the incident would be of no solace to the family of the victim or to the injured and it was rather disconcerting that even when advanced technologies were available, incidents such as this still happened.
The formulation of protocols on security and safety measures at worksites must engage the attention of the government and the Public Works department (PWD) specifically because, it was common knowledge that every ongoing work attracts accidents because of a lack of proper warning signs, lights and so on. Most of the roads were not lit much and it was difficult to discern a work, especially when one travels at speeds over 40 km per hour or so. This was the bane of our system, the court said.
The court added that we often talked about countries other than ours when speaking about progress, but when it came to our neighborhood, we were oblivious to the various requirements that were mandatory. We could not make any further delay and specific protocols would have to be thought of and implemented without reservation. These protocols certainly must cover all the works in the State and not merely those undertaken by the PWD.
The court made it clear that if any such incident was brought to its notice in the future, the engineers and supervisory officers concerned would be held primarily responsible.
The court made these observations while hearing a case relating to road repair works in Kochi.
