While three more persons lost their lives on the roads of Delhi on Tuesday night when an over-loaded dumper truck overturned on car on Outer Ring Road near Munirka, the Delhi Traffic Police has said the shortage of staff has made it difficult for them to ensure adequate deployment during the night time.
Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Muktesh Chander told The Pioneer that the strength of the Traffic Police in Delhi is just one-third of the norms set by Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD).
“When 50 per cent of the accidents happen during the night, then the deployment of traffic personnel at night should also be at least 50 per cent of the deployment of day time. But we don’t have enough men to do that and consequently, we are able to only deploy 10 per cent of the force. We have a requirement of at least 6,000 more men to ensure adequate deployment,” Chander said.
The prima facie reason why the dumper truck overturned on the car killing three persons is said to be over-loading. However, the Delhi Traffic Police has no jurisdiction to prosecute trucks for over-loading and only Transport Department can do that, informed Chander.
“It is pertinent that action is taken against over-loaded trucks before they enter or leave Delhi. Weigh-in-motion sensors should be installed in all the entry points. With penalty for overloading increasing with the amount of weight over the prescribed limit, the revenue earned from the penalties would cover the expenses of the sensors. Not only that, curb on over-loading will also lead to reduction in pollution, wear and tear of roads apart from number of such accidents,” added Chander.
Various dark-spots have been identified by the Delhi Traffic Police which are prone to accidents. Incidentally, the stretch at the Outer Ring Road near Munirka where Tuesday’s accident happened also figures in the traffic police’s list of “dark spots”. Chander said the traffic police is also writing to various civic agencies to ensure that engineering faults on the roads at those dark spots are rectified.
“We are also doing our part like installing blinkers at those locations and making required changes to traffic signaling system. But it’s primarily the road engineering faults that make those stretches prone to accidents. So we are writing to concerned civic agencies to take appropriate action. We are also making a consolidated action plan listing work that needs to be done on our part, as well as other agencies,” he added.