BENGALURU: The city traffic police is coming down hard on BMTC buses violating traffic rules. Data from Bengaluru Traffic Police shows that as many as 39,494 cases were booked against BMTC buses between January and November 2016. This means an average of 118 BMTC buses were booked every day by the traffic police for violations across the city.
Of the 39,494 cases booked against BMTC buses, wrong parking tops the list of violations with 20,330 cases followed by jumping traffic signal (9,666), driving on no-entry roads (2,949) and not following lane discipline (2,544). Traffic police also booked 1,221 BMTC drivers for using mobile phone while driving.
“The rule is same for everyone. We are taking stringent action against erring BMTC drivers. But we don’t want to stop buses in the middle of the road which causes inconveniences to passengers,” said a senior traffic police officer.
BMTC has 6,191 buses in its fleet which make 73,775 trips covering 11.95 lakh km and ferrying over 50 lakh passengers every day. “The number of traffic violations compared to our fleet size is minimal. We are creating awareness among drivers and also recovering the fine amount from the drivers who violated traffic rules. Among the reasons for wrong parking include shortage of bus bays and encroachments of existing bus bays,” said a senior BMTC official.
A BMTC driver said, “We are struggling to reach bus stops and destinations on time because of increasing traffic congestion in the city, especially during peak hours. So sometimes we are forced to jump signals or lanes. We are also under severe pressure to finish each trip within a fixed time as the BMTC is yet to revise the time charts”.
Many regular passengers say BMTC should conduct awareness campaigns on traffic rules for drivers. “It’s scary to see BMTC buses breaking traffic rules. Ideally, they should be the role model for other motorists. Stringent action should be taken against drivers as rash and negligent driving will endanger lives of bus passengers and other commuters,” said K Padmawathy, a regular BMTC passenger.
Traffic police records shows that BMTC was involved in 176 accidents that killed 41 people and injured 139 people in 2016 (till November).