Hyderabad: Despite having strict rules and imposing increased fines to prevent traffic violations in the city, motorists seem to be undeterred as traffic offences are on the rise. According to traffic police officials, busy traffic intersections in the city witness around 30 to 40 violations of traffic rules every single day.
Motorists disobey traffic signals, drive their vehicles over dividers and footpaths and on the wrong side of the road, apart from not following line driving and reckless honking.
A traffic police officer told this correspondent, “Many people do complain about people driving on the wrong side of the road – mostly two wheeler riders. These people also jump signals but we are only two officers at the traffic signal and we cannot catch hold of everyone who violates rules as we also have to manage heavy traffic.”
"We do not have the right to file a complaint or ask the command control centre to increase the staff or ask for cameras so that we can click pictures of violators so that they at least get to pay challans. CCTV cameras at a few signals do not work, but it is not in our hands,” added the officer.
Those who jumped signals said they did it because they did not have time to wait for 10-15 minutes at every signal and no one actually caught them. "It is irritating to wait for more than five minutes. And as there is also a wrong side option available,” said a two-wheeler rider, who jumped signal at a traffic signal.
Another two-wheeler rider said, "I rode my bike over the footpaths near the Fatehnagar flyover many times. In fact, many people do that. I also follow them and think it's normal to do so."
"If there is a divider on the road, then it should look like one. They are so small that we can drive over them to reach our destination faster,” a man who violated traffic at Paradise junction said, adding, “The government should build good roads and dividers where one doesn't get the chance to violate the rules. No one has time to wait at every signal for many minutes.”
However, those waiting patiently at the signal said two-wheeler riders who violated traffic rules suddenly came from behind and hit their vehicles. "The ones who get onto the dividers and footpaths try to be ahead of us and that is disturbing and irritating," said Shivam J. who takes the Paradise route daily and travels by car.
