It was a hectic day for Kamashiplaya traffic police as a team resorted to a cleaning drive on a stretch of Magadi Road between the busy Srigandha Kaval and Sumanahalli, as multiple overload trucks had dropped gravel stones on the stretch posing threat to the road users on Sunday, May 12.
Following a series of complaints of the gravel stones coming under the moving wheels being shot towards other vehicles and road users, posing a threat to their safety, traffic police took up the cleaning drive themselves. The police reached the spot and blocked the traffic from both the sides and started clearing the gravel. It took the police team over an hour to clean the road and ensure smooth movement of the traffic, a senior police officer said.
According to the police the incident warrants action under Section 184 of the Motor Vehicle Act, 1988, which defines a reckless act while driving. “This is purely an act of reckless driving on the part of that heavy goods vehicle drivers. They overload the trucks and spill gravel stones, sand, and other materials on the road as they go. This poses a big risk to other commuters on the road,” the officer said.
Trucks carrying construction materials have been instructed to follow all safety norms and cover the trucks with tarpaulins. The trucks are also banned from entering the city in the daytime to avoid untoward incidents. However, a majority of the trucks carrying such material do not follow the rules and their drivers are reckless, a police officer added. Many drivers even when they are caught are ready to pay a fine of ₹1,000 but do not follow the rules, he rues. The onus is on the traffic police deployed on such roads to ensure trucks moving in the night should follow safety norms, the official said.
However, a senior traffic policeman said that in many instances like these, traffic personnel on the road have had to resort to filling potholes, cleaning road stretches, clearing fallen branches, clearing inundated roads, and removing vehicles that breakdown, among other works due to delay in response from the civic bodies.
