From Wed, no entry for vehicles sans tail lights on Samruddhi

Nagpur: After barring entry of vehicles with worn out tyres on the Samruddhi Expressway, the Regional Transport Office (RTO) is set to stop vehicles without functioning tail light from May 10.
As many as 14 fatal accidents on the expressway have been caused as drivers coming from behind could not spot heavy vehicles plying without visible tail lights, as per an analysis by the Nagpur Regional Transport Authority.

To prevent accidents caused by rear-end collisions, the Nagpur RTO has started penalizing vehicles without tail lights. Acting RTO (rural) Vijay Chavhan told TOI, “On Monday, our team penalized 35 vehicles, mostly heavy vehicles, from other states like Nagaland, Punjab etc for non-functioning tail lights.”
He added that last month two major fatal accidents were caused due to rear-end collision of four-wheelers.
“The RTO has also started applying reflective paints on the tails of heavy vehicles entering the expressway even if they have functioning tail lights,” said Chavan.
The department has formed two squads to check vehicles entering without tail lamps. “Apart from penalizing vehicles and recovering Rs1,000 fine, the squads at the entry gate of expressway will check whether the tail lamps are functioning or not. Vehicles with non-functioning tail lamps will not be allowed to enter the expressway,” Chavhan said.
After reviewing causes of accidents, the RTO had initiated several measures including stopping vehicles with worn out tyres from entering the expressway. In the last one month, RTO squads from several districts have caught 6,284 vehicles with worn out tyres. Of them, 330 vehicles, mostly four-wheelers, were prevented from driving on the expressway.
An exit management system, which automatically calculates the speed of vehicles, was adopted to penalize vehicles being driven over the speed limit of 120 km per hour. The boom barriers at the exit point were not lifted automatically after 485 vehicles were found to have exceeded the speed limit.
According to Chavhan, the flying squads of the transport department comprising motor vehicle inspectors and assistant motor vehicle inspectors too have penalized 127 drivers for speeding, 708 for lane cutting, 692 for parking vehicles on the expressway and 225 for plying without reflectors.