Indore: Exposing tall claims of traffic police about taking proper action against violators of traffic rules and thus, curbing the menace in city, overloaded vehicles are plying freely on roads, risking many lives. Let alone trucks and other goods vehicles, which mostly remain extra stuffed with goods, public buses, autos, vans and even ibuses too can be found overloaded with passengers round the clock in every corner of the city.
But strangely, such serious violation of traffic law never attracted any police action, as regional transport department has turned a blind eye to the problem and perhaps, waiting for an untoward incident to shake out of the slumber. Notably, overloaded vehicles have claimed lives of a good number of people in the city, with schoolchildren travelling in jam packed school vans being the most vulnerable.
An irked resident of Vijay Nagar, Parvendu Sharma said “Overloaded vehicles always invite accidents; yet they go scot free due to reluctance of police. Police find it easy to launch crackdown on those not wearing helmet, but overlook the serious risks like overloading of vehicles.”
Another regular commuter Tushar Parashar of Scheme No 54 said that overloading vehicles are not only endangering life of one but many. School students can be seen travelling in overloading rickshaws and vans, which are very risky, he added.
Kirti Vyas of Vaibhav Nagar said “Van and auto drivers have no fear of traffic police and they do not care about others’ life as well. We can see people hanging on doors of buses, vans and autos and even vehicle full with belongings; but I am surprised why police failed to see them.”
Let alone trucks and other goods vehicles, which mostly remain extra stuffed with goods, public buses, autos, vans and even ibuses too can be found overloaded with passengers risking lives of many. However, for traffic police helmet is most important.
WHAT THEY SAY
Overloaded vehicles at times run at a very high speed, which risks losing balance leading to large toll and casualties
– Sneha Trivedi Homemaker
Instead of putting serious effort in make city’s traffic smooth, police is busy in taking action only against those not wearing helmet. It seems cops are more interested in just ensuring a rider wears helmet as he stops for minutes after minutes in traffic jams
– Jitendra Verma
Area manager
Overloading passenger vehicles are always a trouble on city roads as they are no less a threat to fellow commuters. Moreover, they stop anywhere in the middle of road to board or alight countless passengers, creating obstruction for other vehicles
– Anshadha Sharma
Engineering student
It is surprising that police do not act against those owning or plying overloaded vehicles, and rather, act just only against those not wearing helmet. They should take action on other violators as well
– Deepak Kunjir, Manager
