Mumbai: In a special drive conducted early on Sunday, police booked 24 offenders for rash and negligent driving on the Eastern Express Highway. Police said the drive was undertaken after repeated complaints about bikers driving rashly, endangering their own lives and those of others late at night on the highway.
Senior PI Praful Phadke, Pant Nagar police station, said, “We set up a nakabandi on the stretch of the Eastern Express Highway passing through our jurisdiction to keep a check on rash bikers, and a total of 17 bikes, on seeing our barricades from afar, swerved into the wrong lane to evade us.”
The police, anticipating evasive action by the bikers, had personnel in vehicles ready at the spot, and the bikers were chased and apprehended. The bikers, 24 in all, were subsequently arrested and booked for rash and negligent driving and endangering the life of others under the IPC along with relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act, Mr. Phadke said.
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Rash driving by bikers has become a menace in several parts of the city, especially where there are long stretches of roads including highways and flyovers. The Mumbai Police regularly register cases of accidents caused due to speeding or rash bikers losing control of their vehicles, or causing other vehicles to lose control while trying to avoid hitting them. Bikers are often caught racing each other late at night.
The spots where such accidents are regularly observed include Carter Road in Bandra, JJ Flyover near CST and the entire stretch from the Girgaum seaface to Marine Drive.
In 2010, the Mumbai Traffic Police had imposed a ban on two-wheelers on JJ Flyover due to the rising number of accidents on the bridge due to speeding bikers. The ban was challenged in the Bombay High Court and was upheld after police submitted statistics of the number of deaths on the flyover every year. However, despite the ban, bikes continue to use the flyover at night, leading to frequent accidents.
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