Speed breakers sans marking pose threat to motorists

Udhagamandalam: The newly laid speed-breakers on the Ooty-Kotagiri Road are left without marking by the state highways department, posing a risk mainly to two-wheelers.Motorists have demanded that the state highways department paint the speed-breakers and fix reflectors. Moreover, there are no signboards before the speed-breakers to caution motorists.L Kannan, a resident of Ooty said, “The speed-breakers laid near Perar and Kattabettu are not visible while driving. There is no signboard to caution about a speed breaker ahead. I lost control of my vehicle twice as I couldn’t see the speed breaker while driving on the stretch.” “Luckily, I was slowly driving the vehicle,” he said.A two-wheeler met with an accident while crossing a speed breaker near Kattabettu. The rider escaped with injuries, but his vehicle was damaged. “The traditional type of speed-breaker is safe. The department should follow that model on the highways. It is sheer negligence on the part of the officials for not keeping caution boards ahead of speed breakers,” J Kumaran, a resident of Kotagiri, said.Several attempts to reach the divisional engineer of state highways, S Kuzhandai Raju, went in vain. Junior engineer of state highways Prakash said, “We will address the issue immediately.”