CHENNAI: The ‘day-light’ system, which has been recently introduced in two-wheelers, should not affect the vision of the oncoming motorists, the Madras High Court has held. A division bench of Justices T S Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan made the observation while passing interim orders on a PIL petition from K K Rajendran of Korattur, which prayed for a directive to the transport and police authorities to strictly enforce the rule of wearing helmets both by the drivers and pillion-riders of two-wheelers and seat belts by the drivers and front-seat occupiers of four-wheelers.
Petitioner submitted that because of the rule that made mandatory wearing of helmets by two-wheeler riders, the number of fatal accidents had come down. It was 4,091 in 2016. It came down to 2,956 in 2017, he pointed out.During the hearing, the bench pointed out that the modern vehicles were fitted with powerful headlights and the mandatory black dot, known as ‘Bull’s Eye’, was not affixed, affecting the on-coming traffic and virtually blinding the vision of drivers coming from the opposite direction.
Another aspect, which the bench pointed out is with regard to ‘day light’ in two-wheelers. “It appears that a rule is going to be implemented, making it mandatory for all two-wheelers to have ‘day light’, which automatically switches on, as soon as the vehicle is started and it cannot be switched off. However, such ‘day light’ has certain prescriptions as per the international standards and it should not affect the on-coming traffic.
What we found recently is that several two-wheelers have LED lights affixed in the front and those lights are left burning during daytime, which is a traffic hazard. This aspect has to be gone into by the authorities concerned, since steps are always taken to prevent motorists from using multi-colour lights in the vehicles,” the bench said and posted the matter for further hearing to July 27 with a directive to file a report with regard to the action taken and to be taken on the present observations.
Govt widens scope of inquiry into police firing
Chennai: The State government has widened the scope of inquiry of the commission into the police firing at Thoothukudi on May 22 over Sterlite issue. Orders in this regard were issued on July 4. The government amended the terms of reference empowering the commission to inquire into the subsequent events after the police firing at Thoothukudi and nearby areas, including damage to public and private property.