Speeding motorists intercepted

Speeding motorists intercepted
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: A traffic board on the Mysore-Bangalore highway near Kengeri says, ‘speed limit - 45 km’. But few motorists pay heed to this rule. On Thursday, over a hundred overspeeding motorists were handed a ‘target’ image of their rash driving on the four-lane highway. The images were taken by cameras fitted on a traffic interceptor vehicle parked on the pavement, without the knowledge of the rule violators.
In half an hour, the interceptor captured over 50 overspeeding drivers, who were fined Rs 300. The fuming motorists, who didn’t know why they were stopped, were shocked to see their vehicles’ pictures.
Once the camera operator in the interceptor targets the vehicle approaching from 1.5 km away, the shoot pinpoints the speed. The instant printer prints the vehicles’ photos with details of the speed. Traffic cops then stop the vehicle and hand over the printout to the violator.
Two interceptors — multi-utility vehicles created by the Institute of Road Traffic Education, Delhi — joined the city traffic police under the B-Trac project in March. The vehicle was deployed on the Mysore-Bangalore road for the first time.
“Overspeeding is the main concern on this highway. As outbound traffic moves slowly till Byatarayanapura, commuters tend to speed up after that,’’ said DCP West (traffic) H Pandhurang Rane.
The officer interacted with the law-breakers and advised them to maintain the permitted speed level. “Despite metal barricades, commuters overspeed, causing accidents,’’ he added.
“The interceptor’s recordings on arterial roads are encouraging. When it was introduced in the East traffic zone, it captured over 200 cases within a few hours,’’ Rane said.