News: Wrong-side driving, illegal parking lead to accidents, say police-12-04-2021
Wrong-side driving, illegal parking lead to accidents, say police
Wrong-side driving and illegal parking, which account for almost 40% of the traffic offences in the city, led to accidents at black spots, the traffic police said on Monday
As per the police data, 12,508 people were penalised until March 31 for wrong-side driving, an increase from 10,834 reported in the same period last year, while 16,683 offences were recorded in 2019. With regard to unauthorised parking, 12,110 people were penalised this year till March 31, while 20,798 and 39,561 in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
The police attributed the reduction in the number of offences over the last two years to the reduction in traffic due to the pandemic. However, the contribution of these two offences rose sharply from 2019.
Sanjeev Balhara, the assistant commissioner of police (traffic), said, “Wrong-side driving and illegal parking are major causes of accidents. Of all the challans, 40% are for wrong-side driving and illegal parking over the last two years. The number of fines imposed for these two offences was 66,876 in 2019, of a total of 342,058. The total amount collected in penalties from commuters this year was around ₹2.73 crore, whereas it was ₹2.5 crore last year and ₹6.9 crore in 2019 (for the first three months).”
Balhara said that the major problem along the expressway and across the city roads is that people do not believe in lane driving and parking. There is ample parking (space), but still, people prefer to park on roads and most of the times, in the unauthorised parking slots or on the main carriageway, resulting in vehicles being towed. “Traffic congestions have been reported from Galleria Market, South City 1 and 2, Sector 14, Palam Vihar and Sector 31 due to illegal parking. People try to avoid parking charges and end up paying large fines after their vehicles have been towed away,” he said.
Although jumping red lights and use of mobile phone while driving could also lead to accidents, these are not major for the traffic police as the number of offences was low. As many as 83 people were penalised for using a mobile phone while driving and 252 for jumping red lights this year.
According to the data, 230 motorists were penalised for speeding, of which 173 offences were recorded in March, with 4 and 16 in February and January, respectively.
The traffic police, in collaboration with the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), has been using cranes to tow away illegally parked vehicles since October 2019. They are also using a mobile application to keep the track of the towed vehicles, said police.
Among other major traffic offences this year, according to the police data, 6,338 fines were issued to motorists riding two-wheelers without a helmet, while 5,707 were issued to pillion riders not wearing a helmet.
