BANGALORE: It is strange but true. Road humps which are supposed to check accidents are themselves becoming the cause of many a mishap. Last week, an employee of a private firm had a miraculous escape when he fell down in a bid to slow down his two-wheeler at a road hump near Royan Circle in Chamarajapet. The reason for his fall is not due to negligent driving but due to poor visibility of the road hump during night.
The white paint put by the Bangalore Traffic Police on the road humps has come off because of which they are not at all seen. Although, this is a simple issue, it involves the precious lives of road users. The road humps are supposed to be painted white every year plus put up a sign board preferably 100 mtrs away from road humps to alert drivers. Unfortunately, a majority of road humps in the city are not painted. Usually, the painting is done by the cops before the onset of monsoon. But this year, this is yet to begin for reasons best known to the traffic police department.
As per the Indian Road Congress, there should be sufficient warning boards before any road humps, both in city limits as well as on national and state highways. This has been done as far as highways are concerned but certainly not within the city limits. The cops seem to be more bothered about the roads where there is frequent movement of VVIPs and not about other roads. As a result, quite a number of citizens are falling near such road humps and get hurt.
Road hump painting work to be completed by April 15
When contacted, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Internal Security) Dr M A Saleem admitted that the white paint has peeled off on almost all road humps. He said, “In Bangalore, there are 2,200 scientific road humps. The Bangalore Traffic Police have already given a list to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) to take up painting of all road humps before the onset of monsoon. In fact, the BBMP is expected to take up the painting work of all the authorised road humps within a day or two, and complete it before April 15. He said the ‘cat eyes’ will be put on all scientific road humps so that they are visible during night too.
He was aware of the fact that many citizens are getting injured as the road humps are not visible after the sunset. “With the painting and installing of the cat eyes, the problem being faced by the drivers will be addressed soon,” he said.