Nagpur: Speed thrills but also kills was aptly reflected in a recent study conducted by the Nagpur traffic police.
From January 1, 2020 to December 10, 2020, the Nagpur city traffic police caught 4,818 motorists for overspeeding. Of these, 1,570 motorists were caught for driving beyond speed limits under Kamptee jurisdiction. It was followed by Sadar zone, especially due to the wide roads in Civil Lines, where 1,238 motorists were booked.
The MIDC zone traffic police nabbed 722 motorists for over speeding on Amravati Road, while 521 were caught under Sakkardara zone. Roads in Cotton Market zone (1), Lakadganj (1) and Sitabuldi (3) have seen fewer offenders primarily due to heavy traffic flow on the roads under these zones.
Equipped with some state-of-the-art equipment, the interceptor vehicles are either mobile or stationed at various spots across the 10 zones of the traffic police at short intervals to catch maximum violators.
The traffic police got these interceptor vehicles a couple of years ago and the objective was to reduce the number of accidents due to overspeeding. Initially, these vehicles remained idle for several months but from 2020, the department started putting them to use. And the result is visible, said a senior cop from the traffic police department.
In this calendar year, the number of road accidents too have witnessed a steep decline of over 27%. In 2019, the city roads had witnessed 932 accidents killing 226 people, while this year till November 30, the traffic police have recorded 680 accidents which claimed 176 lives.
Traffic experts stressed the need to intensify the drive across the city. Though number of cases in Lakadganj and Sitabuldi zones are very less, but in reality the number of speed violators are more. One could easily see how youngsters indulge in driving at breakneck speed, they said.