The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Speeding, rash driving

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 21, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Speeding, rash driving — twin evils

LAW &ORDER More than enforcement, police feel it will be better if motorists exercise self-discipline, writes L. Srikrishna

The twin evils of speeding and rash driving appear to be unstoppable in the city. Almost every day, police receive reports of fatal and non-fatal accidents on the roads.

Many of the roads are broad and well-laid, which tempt the road users to go at break-neck speed, police say.

Be it peak or non-peak hours, there is a mad rush among the motorists, particularly youngsters, who speed from one point to another violating the speed norms.

According to traffic police, the four-lane traffic system at Anna Salai had enabled them in regulating the vehicles to a great extent. Though the motorists violated the speed regulation of 35 kmph in this stretch, there were fewer fatal accidents on Anna Salai compared to other areas such as Saidapet and Kotturpuram, and stretches such as ECR and OMR.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sunil Kumar said that in the last three months and 10 days, they had booked 17,000 cases of speeding and 2,000 cases of rash driving.

Violation of signals accounted for 22,000 cases. Lane jumping cases were booked against 7,500 motorists and 27,000 cases were registered for violating the stop line.

Though the police were armed with powers to enforce the law and impose fines, it would be better if motorists adhered to the traffic rules.

A modicum of self-discipline would bring in good results, an officer manning the ECR said.

He admitted that police alone could not bring about changes overnight in a city like Chennai where the vehicle population was mushrooming.

After a spate of fatal accidents on the East Coast Road, the police identified certain pockets as "accident prone" and focused on them. As a result, Mr Kumar said, with the support of locals and college students, the number of fatal accidents had dropped phenomenally on the ECR.

He recalled that there was no fatal case during the New Year's Eve celebrations.

Up to April 16 this year, the police had recorded 36 deaths on the ECR; it was over 100 during the corresponding previous year. This showed that a sustained campaign could work and urged motorists not to drink and drive.

Stressing the issue of road safety, the traffic police have embarked upon identifying pockets on the OMR and GST stretches where the most fatalities were reported in the last 30 days.

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