Cops declare war on speedsters
Curbing overspeeding — and the deaths caused by it — on the city’s roads is the Delhi Traffic Police’s focus now. The police have stepped up their watch on motorists violating speed limits and prosecuted 23,504 vehicles last month.
Curbing overspeeding — and the deaths caused by it — on the city’s roads is the Delhi Traffic Police’s focus now. The police have stepped up their watch on motorists violating speed limits and prosecuted 23,504 vehicles last month.
“Our main focus is to restrict speed violation, which is the main reason for fatal accidents, and significantly bring down the city’s road death count. In recent years, never have so many vehicles been prosecuted in a month for speed violation,” said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic).
The speed limit for cars and two-wheelers in Delhi is 50kmph. It’s 70kmph on a few stretches — NH8, NH1, Barapullah Road, DND flyway and a part of NH10. On a few stretches of Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, NH24 and Pushta Road, the limit is 60kmph.
“Motorists caught for speeding 20kmph and above the permissible limit are booked for dangerous driving. We have proposed that section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act be used to punish with imprisonment those booked for dangerous driving,” Garg said.
Traffic police officials said the drive against overspeeding would show optimum results only when speed cameras are installed on the roads. The proposal is awaiting a nod from the home ministry’s purchase committee.
“Cameras will be installed at 70 strategic points on the accident-prone arterial roads within two months so that speed violation during the night can be checked,” Garg said.
For now, the police are using interceptors, which cannot measure vehicular speed at night. Overspeeding accounts for high number of fatalities in Delhi. Some of the city’s accident-probe stretches are NH8, NH1, NH24, Ring Road, Outer Ring Road, Mathura Road, Road no 56 and GT Karnal Road.