Speed guns used by traffic police are good to impose fines on owners of overspeeding vehicles. But to what extent are they helpful in checking overspeeding is a moot point. Bikers zooming around on the city roads, putting the lives of other vehicle drivers is not uncommon. In fact, commuters encounter vehicles being driven at abnormal speeds every day in the State capital.
On the city outskirts, it is more brazen. While traffic police officials say they don’t have sufficient number of speed guns, there is little proof that the devices help in controlling this dangerous trend of overspeeding that often leads to accidents.
“There is no guarantee that a person penalised for overspeeding won’t do it again. Most seem to feel that no one can stop them,” says Prasada Rao of Punjagutta.
Eye on violators
This is only emboldening them indirectly to resort to it repeatedly. With limited number of speed guns, how many such violators can be caught on camera is another question. In the past, the Punjagutta traffic police experimented by deploying two teams on either ends of a long stretch where drivers tend to overspeed.
On seeing a vehicle being driven in a rash manner, the team there clicks pictures, records a video and alerts their counterparts on the other side. This helps to rein in dangerous driving to some extent. In some parts of Kerala, this type of enforcement is done on some highways.
With the police focussing more on contactless enforcement of traffic rules, the system of physically stopping a vehicle for any violation is almost done away with. Going by the ubiquitous overspeeding instances and their growing number, the contactless enforcement seems to have failed to yield results, at least in curtailing overspeeding.
