The highway neither had boards displaying diversions nor lights

Thirty-five-year-old ex-corporal from the Indian Air Force V R Deore had to take leave in January 2005 as his father was undergoing treatment for a damaged liver at Command Hospital,Pune,and doctors feared that he would not survive. Little did Deore know that it would turn out to be a long ordeal for him. Lying on his cot at the Spinal Cord Injury Centre,Military Hospital,Khadki,this is the second time Deore has been admitted after a road accident paralysed him four years ago.

The doctors had asked me to inform family members and I decided to drive back to my place in Aurangabad, recalls Deore. Driving along the four-lane highway on the Pune-Ahmednagar Road,Deore got confused as there was no board that displayed the diversion of the road. There was some construction work on the highway,but no boards were displayed that showed the turn to Ahmednagar, he says. Driving at 11 pm,Deore missed the turn and went along the Nevasa Road,which was under construction. My car tumbled twice on the road that was full of stones and I had to break open the seat belt and the windscreen to get outside, he says.

The impact of the accident was so tremendous that Deore was paralysed below his neck and was admitted at the hospital for treatment of traumatic quadriplegia. I was admitted for a year in the hospital. Since I was paralysed below the neck,I had to leave the services and join the Paraplegic Rehabilitation Centre, says Deore. I wish I had decided not to drive that night. But how would I know that our state highways neither had boards displaying road diversions nor street lights, he says.

Deore is not the only victim of a road accident at the hospital. According to Col D N Karan,Medical Officer Health Services,Military Hospital,Khadki,this year,47 road accident cases have been referred to the hospital.