The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) was found dealing with yet another fatality on the construction site of Aroor-Thuravoor NH 66 stretch on Thursday. As public outrage mounted, the NHAI came up with an apology and a procedural statement on formation of an expert committee to probe the incident.

The committee will probe the circumstances that led to the death of Rajesh, who was crushed to death by a girder at Eramalloor near the under-construction Aroor–Thuravoor elevated corridor on NH 66.

Rajesh (48), was a native of Pallippad in Haripad. A massive concrete beam, slipped off the hydraulic jack and fell atop Rajesh's vehicle. Following the incident, locals staged a protest at the site, alleging that high-risk construction work was being carried out without properly blocking traffic. They also claimed that a KSRTC bus and a car narrowly escaped being hit by the falling girders.

Tragedy struck two weeks after a man died in a landslip on the NH-85 corridor at Adimali. Since May, fatal accidents on worksite have put the NHAI in a corner, raising questions about safety standards while carrying out civil works. 

Earlier, on August 17, a massive iron beam collapsed at Thuravoor Junction while being dismantled. There have also been earlier instances of girders falling on the under-construction stretch, though major tragedies were averted as the road was empty at the time.

The 13-km-long elevated road is being constructed on NH-66 from Aroor to Thuravoor.

In September, two electrial technicians fixing street lights on the Talapady-Chengala stretch of NH 66 died after the crane-mounted cage slipped off the hook and fell 10 metres below. 

Early in May, one person died and three others were injured when a portion of the hillock collapsed on the NH-66 in Hosdurg in Kasaragod during the road-widening works. The collapse of NH-66 at Kooriyad had triggered massive protests following which the union ministry had constituted expert committees and ordered penalty on the contractors. The ministry is yet to publish the expert committee report. 

Records show that as many as five incidents of failure/collapse were reported in the state on NH stretches since May. Four girders had collapsed during the four laning of Thalassery-Mahe bypass. The scaffolding of the minor bridge under construction on Kollam bypass - Kadambattukonam road had collapsed, raising serious safety concerns. 

A site inquiry into the collapse of a span of four girders on the Thuravoor - Paravoor stretch showed that the workers had mistakenly removed the support for using it for subsequent girders. The report said that the workers removed the sand jack and wooden blocks of one girder and then another girders of a pier. The process was continued for another pier in the same sequence. 

They were about to remove  the packing of one girder when the another one started moving away. It slid from the position and along with it all the other girders fell to the ground. The workers had a miraculous escape as they quickly moved away after seeing the girder fall from its position. 

In August, a timber-laden lorry overturned after it ran into a pothole on the service road of Muringoor under-construction site leading to hours of traffic snarl.