BANGALORE: After a 58-year-old-man’s efforts to understand why his son lost his life in an accident near an illegal speed breaker went futile. The Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) and Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) seem to have woken up to the age-old problems caused by illegally constructed, fatal speed breakers in the city.
G M Chavan lost his son Suryaprakash, 22, in 2008 who was thrown off a bike when he hit an unmarked speed breaker in BTM Layout. Chavan had then launched a campaign against unscientifically designed speed humps. However, his efforts came to a naught when Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC), in a recent judgment, refused to blame any particular civic agency for the incident.
However, the incident has spurred the police and BBMP into action and in the past month almost 1,123 illegal and unscientific road humps have been removed.
“We have managed to clear 1,123 road humps which were constructed arbitrarily and were unnecessary,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) Dr M A Saleem.
He added that traffic police had written to the BBMP and BDA to remove 536 more unscientific road humps along with marking them with white paint and fixing reflectors on the 2,200 scientific road humps in Bangalore.
When asked about the dirt and rubble left uncleared on roadside, Dr Saleem added that cleaning work would be completed before April 15.
Indian Road Congress (IRC) guidelines state that the central height of road hump must be 10-12 cm with a width of 3.5 metres.
Also, two signboards, one at 20-30 metres and another 10 meters away from the road hump must be placed. However, illegal road humps neither follow the height rule nor the signboards rule since the traffic police cannot place signboards for illegal humps. As per IRC guidelines, BTP plays an advisory role in road hump placement and it’s the responsibility of the Traffic Engineering Cell (TEC) of BBMP to construct road humps.
Officials from TEC, however, remained unavailable to comment.
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