Kathmandu, November 6:

Many concrete road dividers, placed to separate the lanes in the middle of the roads in Kathmandu Valley, have been causing road accidents, at times even fatal ones.

The dividers placed on the road parallel to the airport at Tinkune is one example. Some vehicle owners say the concrete dividers were a headache to them and they had crashed their vehicles solely because of the dividers.

“I was returning home at night a few days ago. Suddenly, I crashed my car into a divider placed right in the centre of the road,” said Dinesh Shrestha. “The dividers are not aligned systematically. The street lights hardly work and there never is a policeman on duty.”

Shrestha said an ambulance had also slammed into the same divider the same night. “There are no visible markings on the dividers and the street lights are not working.”

The dividers have also become a cause of fatal incidents. According the data provided by the Metropolitan Traffic Police Office, two people died in accidents due to the dividers during Dashain and Tihar. “The dividers placed on the inner roads in the city have reflectors, but the ones on the outskirts like Chabahil and Koteshwor do not have any indicator. We are trying to resolve this problem,” said TB Khadka, inspector, Kathmandu Metropolitan Police.

According to inspector Deepak Giri, there had been many accidents in the recent days due to dividers. “A person identified as Rabin Pandey was killed recently when he collided with a divider,” he said.

However, another inspector Jagat KC said that everything was in order. “There are no problems regarding the dividers.”