Rise in accidents attributed to heavy night traffic

Rise in accidents attributed to heavy night traffic

The Hindu

As the IT firms function round-the-clock, traffic during the night has increased considerably

# 544 people have been killed in road accidents till July this year
# Absence of enforcement during night tempts drivers to over speed
# Night shifts for traffic police under consideration
# Software engineers being trained in `defensive driving'

BANGALORE: Bangalore's traffic scene has undergone a sea change after the influx of IT companies, business process outsourcing firms (BPOs) and call centres into the city.

As the IT firms, BPOs and call centres function round-the-clock, the volume of traffic during the night has increased considerably.

This has led to a rise in the number of road accidents at night and during early morning.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-East) M. Abdullah Saleem now the traffic volume at night is almost the same as what it used to be during the day, a few years ago.

During night vehicles carrying employees of IT companies, call centres and BPOs are many. Mr. Saleem said that as many as 544 people had been killed in road accidents till July this year. Of these, 153 died in accidents that occurred between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The hourly analysis of road accidents shows that the highest number of people (95) was killed in incidents reported between 9 p.m. and midnight. As many as 58 people were killed between midnight and 6 a.m.

Mr. Saleem said that as traffic signals get switched off at 11 p.m., and with no enforcement during the night, drivers not only over speed but also violate other traffic rules, resulting in accidents.

Several accidents have occurred when drivers have violated one-way rule during the night and in the early hours of the day. The police have taken up special drives to check violation of one-way rule during the early hours of the day.

More personnel

For better traffic management during the night, the top brass was planning to have regular shifts for traffic police throughout the night. The State Government had taken the matter seriously and had promised to recruit 2,000 personnel exclusively for traffic duties. "Once the recruitments are completed, we will have full shift throughout the night," Mr. Saleem said.

Of late, traffic signals were not switched off even during the night at six important junctions in the central parts of the city. But, still motorists were found violating rules at these junctions, he said.

Training

As several road accidents were occurring with no fault of the drivers, the police were training software engineers in "defensive driving." They were being taught how to avoid accidents resulting from the mistakes of other road-users and pedestrians.

Such training had been given to IT professionals at companies in International Technology Park Ltd. and Electronic City.

So far, nearly 3,500 software engineers and security guards had been trained, Mr. Saleem said.

In regard to "rash driving" by drivers of vehicles of call centres and BPOs, he said the companies had been requested to display their telephone numbers on the vehicles so that the public could lodge complaints with them. Many companies had complied with the request, he added.