The city police are facing a dilemma. They are caught between the demand to regulate flow of ambulances for the sake of traffic and the need to clear the road for the necessary service. “The flow of ambulances has reached a point where one ambulance passes through the Edappally junction every five minutes. In several instances, the ambulances are used transport staff or even goods,” said a city traffic police official.
Of late, the number of accidents involving ambulances is also on the rise, he said. “The cases of careless driving and violation of traffic rules by these ambulance drivers are so common. But still, the police has no other option, but to clear the way for them,” the official pointed out.
The severity of the situation was revealed by a hit-and-run last month in which an ambulance, violating the one-way traffic, collided head-on with a biker near Palarivattom.
Though the biker sustained serious injuries, the ambulance did not stop and sped off.
So far, attempts by the police to reign in the raging ambulances have been opposed by the ‘concern for life saving services’. “We may not be able to differentiate between emergency and misuse in the first place. But things are not going to be so easy for them in the coming says,” officials warn.
Runaway Father
He came close to being arrested more than once during the past one half months, but the police still seem to have no idea about the wherebouts of the Catholic priest, accused of sexually assaulting a minor girl in Puthenvelikkara, has gone.
After issuing a look out circular, the police have expanded the search for the Fr. Edwin Figarez to other states. “A special team has been sent to locations as far as Delhi and rural north India,” officials said, while ruling out the possibility of him leaving the country.
In fact, the focus shifted to northern parts of the country following speculations that the priest would be moving the Supreme Court for an anticipatory bail.
Sources pointed out that the accused had appeared before the investigating officer and even surrendered his passport.
However, the police could not arrest the priest owing to a direction from the Kerala High Court in this regard.
The police missed another opportunity to arrest him when the HC dismissed his petition for bail.
“After that, all that we saw was him getting into a car. He has been untraceable ever since, said officials.
Hiran Unnikrishnan
