Driving at night is proving to be a challenge for motorists due to heavy vehicles that zip past at breakneck speeds.
With Kochi Metro works slowing down traffic considerably during the day time, it seems drivers of trailers and trucks are striving to catch up during nights. Earlier this week, a trailer rammed into the railings of Kudannoor Bridge.
Meanwhile, illegal parking of container lorries and trailers along the Container Terminal Road continues to cause accidents in the stretch. The latest was reported from the Mulavukad region on Wednesday morning when a lorry carrying concrete mixer rammed into an illegally parked trailer injuring the driver.
While the Motor Vehicle Department sources claimed that strict enforcement has brought down accidents caused by heavy vehicles, some road users say such vehicles are indulging in reckless driving during nights when enforcement officials are mostly off the road.
Even trucks carrying cooking gas cylinders can sometimes be seen plying dangerously with scant regard for the combustible nature of the product they carry.
The frequent breakdown of surveillance cameras mounted also let reckless driving go unpunished. Drivers of many of these heavy vehicles are also guilty of not dimming their headlights for motorists coming from the opposite direction making their reckless driving doubly dangerous.
No concession
for woes
That there is little love lost between the private bus employees and students is nothing new.
Though there are bodies like the student travels facility committee to ensure concessional fare to students in buses, there is no dearth of altercations between the two parties often bringing the enforcement authorities into the picture.
Earlier this month, the Ernakulam Regional Transport Officer suspended the licence of the conductor of a private bus operating in the North Paravur-Kaloor route after two college students complained that the conductor asked them to leave the bus immediately for seeking their rightful concession.
M.P. Praveen
