Death riders on Outer Ring Road

Death riders on Outer Ring Road
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: If you think driving through the Outer Ring Road is faster, shorter and safer, think again.

Drive down any stretch of the 62 km road around the city and you find safety, speed limits and lane discipline being thrown to the winds.

Reckless vehicles of all sizes weave in and out between trucks that occupy centre-stage on the so-called silk route.

In any stretch and at any given time, dozens of trucks in close proximity outrace each other regardless of their length and the weight they carry.

Huge trailers, tankers, sand-laden lorries and tarpaulin-clad inter-state trucks with their trademark national permit colours cut across lanes, scare two-wheelers to a corner, and use blaring air horns to force right of way. All this as the traffic police look the other way.

‘‘The police should make truck traffic stick to a single lane so that the roads are left free for other vehicles”.

“But no one dares to enforce the rule,’’ says one regular commuter. The stretch between Hebbal flyover and Ramamurthy Nagar is the worst.

Another section is from Marath Halli to Bellandur Cross and the third between Peenya and Jalahalli Cross.

A truck driver told this website’s newspaper that he preferred the extreme right as that is the only way he will keep moving at a comfortable speed.

‘‘If I stick to the extreme left, city buses suddenly stop in front, blocking everyone".

"If I drive in the middle, I have to be careful and look in the rear view mirrors on both sides as two-wheelers and cars overtake from the left frequently”.

“Some even cut into us and we have to take the blame if they fall and get run over.’’

The ring road with its grade separators, underpasses and flyovers has been entirely designed and executed by Bangalore Development Authority (BDA).

‘‘This road cannot take this kind of traffic which has increased by three-fold in the last two years,’’ a traffic policeman at a junction said.

The long signals too make driving dangerous as inevitably autorickshaws and two-wheeler riders make use of a break in traffic and dart across the ring road.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M N Reddi admits that truckers are a menace and they need to be disciplined.

‘‘There is a plan to regulate truck traffic on the ORR. We have to mark the lanes,’’ he said.

Reddi said these trucks indulge in wrong parking, occupy wrong lanes, jump signals and are responsible for a number of accidents.

‘‘We have a plan to control them. But it will take a few months. As for making them pay fines, we can think of a toll plaza where they can pay and get out of the city.’’