The roads of the city pose a driving nightmare in this season with motorists having to grapple with unmarked speed breakers, crater sized pot-holes and water logging.
Visibility is at its lowest and adding fuel to this, are the errant drivers who believe that rules are meant only for the book.
Pune, unfortunately ranks among the cities with the highest number of road accident deaths In India and also has more vehicles than people only compounding this concern further.
A significant cause for a huge number of accidents is the unfortunate use of the High Beam on headlights, blinding the oncoming vehicle drivers and steering them out of control. The brunt of the issue is often borne by an innocent pedestrian who is hit by these fast moving vehicles.
Pune365 spoke to a few informed regular motorists and others on this dangerous trend in the city.
“It is very difficult to judge what lies ahead of you when you are driving and faced with a bright headlight beam. This is worse now in the rains says, Prakash Jha, an Undri resident.
“Be it a truck driver, car or motor vehicle owner, everyone use the high beam even after realising that they also encounter the same problem when someone else drives on high beam.
Motorists are so indifferent when it comes to safety and thanks to this reckless behaviour people end up succumbing to road accidents,” Jha adds.
When questioned about the law and punishment one attracts when driving with their headlights on high beam, a traffic police official said, “Using high beam in the city limits is indeed a violation of law under the Motor Vehicle Act and they should not be used on well-lit roads or when driving in fog, rain, snow, or smoke.
It can confuse the driver of the oncoming vehicle and can blind him for a moment. It does attract a fine of Rs 100. We have been informing people time and again about this law, but still we spot almost every other driver driving with their headlights on high beam.”
Meeta Kumar, a resident of Mumbai and a regular traveller says that our infrastructure is also not developed in a way to prevent this.
“People prefer to use high beams while driving on a highway to identify the obstructions from a distance and more with bushes and trees lining the roads. But here, people use them even when there is a lot of traffic, in small lanes and service roads.
This creates a lot of difficulty in focussing on the roads and hence causes major accidents.
Additionally some drivers even replace their headlights with white or flashing lights creating more problems,” adds Kumar.
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Reach her at loveleen@pune365.com or tweet @KaurKaur18
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