Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Police to step up traffic enforcement

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city police will strictly enforce the use of helmets and seat belts from Monday. Officials said the intensive enforcement drive was aimed at reducing the accident rate in the city.

Two-wheeler riders without helmets will be fined. So will be motorists driving without fastening their seat belts.

Traffic accidents caused by the use of mobile phones while driving have been on the increase in the city, according to police officials

Quoting a traffic study, a senior official said the accident risk caused by motorists using cell phones while driving was comparable only to the hazards of drunken and reckless driving.

Motorists using mobile phones while driving was four times more likely to get involved in an accident in normal traffic conditions, according to one study.

He said even speaking on a “hands-free” mobile phone set while driving was as risky as drunken driving. Motorists speaking on mobile phones while driving responded slowly to traffic signals and other hazards. Cell phone usage also greatly reduced the field of vision of drivers.

There was no significant difference in driver responses among those motorists using hand-held phones and those using hands-free mobile phone devices. This meant there was no road safety advantage in using mobile phones allowing hands-free operations, he said.

Ideally, motorists should not attend mobile phone calls while driving. Drivers should make (or receive) calls after safely stopping the vehicle.

Motorists who speak on mobile phones while driving will be prosecuted for reckless driving under section 184 of the Motor Vehicle Act. An offender booked under the section could be fined up to Rs.1,000.

The police said night-time enforcement against drunken driving would be stepped up in the coming days. Motorists driving vehicles without functional headlights, rear lamps, break lights, indicators and vipers will be fined.

According to National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) experts, lack of protective head gear was the main reason for the high number of fatalities in road accidents involving two-wheelers in the city. The experts, who studied medical records at accident trauma care wings of the Medical College Hospital, said that head injury was the cause of death in at least 70 per cent of two-wheeler accidents reported in the district.

They said the two-wheeler accident death rate in Kerala was much higher than that in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu where the police strictly enforced the wearing of helmets. The experts said that a large segment of two-wheeler riders in the city were youth in the age group 18-24.

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