The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Focus on safety of traffic police personnel on duty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 18, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Focus on safety of traffic police personnel on duty

Not all junctions have traffic umbrellas and some of those erected at some intersections have been removed for providing more room for vehicles, writes Marri Ramu

It had been more than four weeks since Punjagutta Inspector James Diwakar was seriously injured after a motorcycle knocked him down at Punjauguta junction.

While the Inspector is still battling for life on hospital bed, the accident has exposed vulnerability of not only the pedestrians but also of traffic policemen regulating vehicles at bustling intersections.

Nearly 16 months ago, constable Adil Ahmed, on duty at the rotary near I-max theatre, died after a car rammed into him. In November last, an RTC bus hit a traffic policeman on duty near CTO crossroads. A few days later, another traffic cop sustained serious wounds after a vehicle bumped into him near airport fly-over.

All these incidents show that traffic policemen on duty at the junctions are at risk but higher-ups express their helplessness saying little can be done to shield their men from such dangers. Not all junctions have traffic umbrellas. Out of those erected at selected intersections, some were removed in the name of providing more moving space for vehicles.

Except the men standing under the traffic umbrella, traffic police officials maintain, there is no other way to avoid such accidents. Middle of the junction is strategic location for a traffic constable from regulation and visibility points of view. Hence, they cannot afford to stand in a corner. "Moreover, if constables position themselves on one side of a junction, it's impossible for him to check violations like jumping signals and regulating traffic flow becomes impossible," a senior officer observed.

Higher-ups, however, concede that managing traffic flow at junctions like Rasoolpura and Punjagutta is becoming difficult for a single constable. "It is not an exaggeration to say even senior constables are sometimes getting confused while moving from one end of the intersection to the other and are as a result bumping against the vehicles," officials say.

Limited men

Pointing to the limited men and officers available, they rule out posting more than one constable at a junction irrespective of the high volume of traffic to be handled. In that case, what can be done to minimise the danger the policemen on duty are prone to?Senior officers are yet to give a serious thought to the subject.pertaining to the men at the lowest level on the ladder.

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