Acting on the stress the new State Government has laid on regulating traffic so as to bring down the number of road accidents, taking toll of lives almost every alternate day, Dehradun police have deployed city patrol unit personnel in accident prone areas across the city. The areas identified as accident prone include Mussoorie diversion, Mussoorie Road, Nayagoan, Nanda-ki-Chowki, Premnagar, Shimla Bypass, ISBT and Haridwar road. CPU personnel whose roles were confined previously to slap fines on the traffic violators have now been deployed at the accident- prone areas with a clear mandate to enforce the traffic rules strictly to bring down the number of road mishaps, said SP Traffic DS Gunjyal while talking to The Pioneer on Wednesday.
Statistics reveal that most of the road accidents occur during the night hours. With the working hours of traffic police being from 8 am to 8 pm, the CPU personnel would be on duty on the roads from 8 am to 12 am at various places, including the designated accident- prone areas, within the boundary of the city.
Observers opine that the CPU personnel must stop the practice of rash driving the drivers of the city buses, in particular, have been indulging in. Besides, the practice of picking passengers from places according to the whims of the drivers and the conductors of the buses must be stopped, they say, adding that the menace of over-speeding, triple riding and drunk driving must be dealt with a heavy hand. Besides, according to them, importance of improving the condition of the roads must be given due attention to stop road accidents.
The observers also mention the fact of the teenage students in Dehradun violating traffic rules with impunity with the traffic rule enforcers tending to look the other way.
A resident of Raipur, Ramesh Uniyal said that Dehradun being hub of education, the number of students riding two-wheelers and even driving cars sans licenses is huge. “Moreover, the roads remain dug up for days, even months. Besides, the potholed roads lead to accidents. All these things must be looked into as part of a comprehensive plan to effectively take on the menace of accidents, killing and injuring people on the roads,” he said.
When informed of what the people expect CPU to do, Gunjyal said that they are aware of the reasons leading to accidents. “We have recently launched a drive against over-speeding, rash driving, triple riding and drunk driving in the city with the city patrol unit personnel having slapped many of the traffic rule violators with penalties.
A total of 782 challans were slapped during the 14- day drive. `77, 999 were collected from the violators by way of penalties.
Besides, 21 vehicles were seized,” he said, adding that such drives would continue in the coming days too.