Pedestrian death brings back to fore Tiruchy's unaddressed issue of traffic violations by private bus
TIRUCHY: The death of a 35-year-old pedestrian after he was allegedly knocked down by a speeding private bus on Bharathiar Salai in the wee hours of Tuesday has again brought to the fore the blatant violation of traffic rules by such private operators. Activists and locals call for stringent action against such violators, including cancellation of their licence.
According to the police, R Mohan (35), who was a railway employee, was early on Tuesday crossing Bharathiar Salai when a speeding private bus which was heading towards the railway junction from Chathiram bus stand mowed him down. The vehicle went on to ram another bus stationed near a petrol pump before coming to a stop by hitting a roadside pole.
The bus driver, P Sundar Raj (41) of Tiruchy, who drove in a rash manner was drunk, the police added. Sundar Raj has been arrested. Calling for increased vigilance by the police to monitor such traffic violations, Ayyarappan, a road safety activist, demanded strict action against the violators to prevent recurrence of an offence. RTO officers should not shy away from cancelling the licence of such drivers who are repeat offenders, he added.
While A Chandru, a city resident, expressed fear of being trailed by a private bus as they do not “hesitate to dash” and complained of the vehicle horn being “scary”, N Saravanan, another road safety activist, said, “Areas near traffic signals are the places where the chances of an accident occurring are high as the private buses, in order to reach the next stop before their competitors, indulge in rash driving." When the bus operation timings are properly regulated such competition between operators could be avoided, Saravanan added. When contacted, B Joseph Nixon, Assistant Commissioner, City North (traffic), attributed accidents involving private buses to the competition among operators in reaching their destination first and in meeting their daily ticket sales.
“As per rules, all vehicles, including buses, should not exceed 30km/hr during day time and 40km/hr at night; anyone violating this could be punished under traffic rules," he said. "We have constituted a team to monitor those drivers of private buses, and an inspection would be held during the peak hours and without their notice," he added. On the action taken against traffic rules violators, the ACP said around 6,000 cases were registered in the past three months against those committing offences like speeding and signal violation.