Dark hours danger surges in Silicon City

BANGALORE: With the IT boom in the city, Bangalore has tagged along the title: ‘the city that never sleeps.’ While there are incessant complaints about traffic congestion and violations during peak hours, the city is not short of traffic violation cases in the nights as well.Despite traffic police’s efforts to keep a tab on traffic rule violators in the night, vehicle users have been flouting rules especially by jumping signals and over-speeding in the night.Traffic personnel say traffic violations especially signal jumps, over-speeding and riding without wearing helmets have increased vastly during the night travel. “It is unfortunate that people think police unnecessarily impose rules and regulations on drivers. Most of the accidents that take place in the night are due to rash and negligent driving. If vehicle users adhere to rules, accidents will be reduced perceptibly,” officials opine.When asked what should commuters do if signal lights are on till late night, officials say that only at major junctions, signal lights are on till midnight.“At less busier roads, signal lights are turned off by 10 pm. Though the signal lights are kept on in the night, they do not last more than 20 seconds. Can’t the drivers wait for 20 seconds to ensure safety of themselves and others?” they question.However, police are now trying to track violations that take place in the night.Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic & Security) M A Saleem said, “Officials at Traffic Management Centre (TMC) work 24X7 and book cases against traffic violators with the help of night-vision enabled cameras. So, while driving in the night, drivers should not presume that police cannot track violation as they are not present. And these days cases against contact-less driving are on a rise.”He added it was difficult to bring down traffic violation cases if people don’t realise their duties as citizens.