Highways to get high speed cameras: Government

CHANDIGARH: To check high rate of road accidents in Punjab, an average of 12 persons were killed daily in fatal accident in 2017, the state government has decided to adopt the technology being used by developed nations like the United States.

Installation of automatic speed surveillance equipment initially at accident prone zones, shoulder rumble strips by the side of roads and weigh-in-motion bridges are all on the government's agenda.

Punjab transport minister Aruna Chaudhary told TOI that she had recently visited the United States and some other developed nations and was impressed by the high-end technology being successfully used by them to save precious human lives. Various studies have found overspeeding and drunken driving as leading causes of road accidents in Punjab. The state had witnessed a total of 4,278 fatalities in 5,977 road accidents last year. The number of motor vehicles is increasing at the arte of around 10% every year in Punjab. In addition, on an average 300 new cars and 1,700 two-wheelers were registered per day in Punjab in 2017, as per the traffic department.

Hence, the minister says, Punjab also needed to adopt the technology being used by countries like Finland where automatic speed surveillance cameras are keeping a check on overspeeding drivers. "Once the roadside traffic camera finds an overspeeding vehicle, it captures its high-resolution photo from which we can clearly find out vehicle registration number and even driver's face," she said, adding such cameras are not there in Chandigarh either. These cameras would initially be placed on the accident-prone dark zones. The traffic police, in association with the public works department, had identified 400 accidental black spots, out of which around 150 most critical spots have already been improved.

At the same time, the minister shared that during her USA visit she noticed the use of shoulder rumble strips by the side of roads. "There have been many accidents just because the drivers fell asleep at the wheels, especially during night hours," said Chaudhary. Even during the heavy fog, vehicles steer out of the roads leading to fatalities. Therefore, when shoulder rumble strips are installed by the side of roads, as soon as the tyre runs over the rumble strip, it produces enough sound and vibration inside the passenger compartment to awake any drowsy driver.

Similarly, there are complaints of overloading of vehicles and when such vehicles meet with accidents and turn turtle, they also results in traffic jams on roads. "We have also decided to install weigh-in-motion bridges at toll plazas to check overloading and slapping fine for violations," said Chaudhary.