Speeding causes 70% of mishaps, yet admn slow to impose fine

With speeding emerging as one of the main causes of deaths in road accidents in the city, finding a solution has to be the top priority for the administration and those involved in regulation of traffic.

With speeding emerging as one of the main causes of deaths in road accidents in the city, finding a solution has to be the top priority for the administration and those involved in regulation of traffic.

Even as there is little progress on the solution, the district transport office plans will soon be launching a new system of testing driving skills and road sense of those wanting to get a driving licence. Named 'Comprehensive Driving Test', the system will test all licence seekers using software.

"The applicants' knowledge of traffic rules will be tested and we will ensure only trained and good drivers are able to take to the roads. The violators of road safety norms will be dealt with a heavy fine," said district transport officer Anil Garg.

Road safety experts also claim that speeding is one of the major causes of road accidents. Kamaljeet Soi, a road safety expert, said, "The number of road accidents due to speeding are more than 70% of all mishaps, but challans for speeding form only 1% of challans.

There must be a provision in place to ensure people think a number of times before speeding."

"For a city more than 1.5 million population, road safety measures taken by authorities are not adequate. The Ferozepur Road, the Chandigarh Road, the Jalandhar Bypass road, the Gill Road and the Link Road are the most affected and busiest roads in city and the most number of accidents occur here, yet there is no check on speeding," he added.

"Road mishaps are caused due to three factors: machine failure, human error and poorly-maintained roads. Roads in the city are not maintained properly which is the major cause of upsurge in road accidents," the DTO added.