Khandwa police ready to take on rash drivers

Taking cue from a fatal head-on collision, the Khandwa traffic police have decided to install speed radar guns at strategic and accident prone points on the Indore-Khandwa highway to monitor speed of buses and heavy vehicles plying on the route.

The death toll in Wednesday’s head-on collision between a private bus and an empty truck on the Indore-Khandwa highway, rose to 25 as two more passengers succumbed to their injuries in a hospital in the city.

More than 50 passengers were travelling in the bus when the accident occurred, police said. Survivors said the bus driver was speeding at the time of the accident. The driver lost control of the bus and collided head-on with an empty truck coming from the opposite direction, some of the survivors said.

On September 29, 2014, 10 people from Kodlajagir village under Bhikangaon tehsil of Khargaon district were killed after a pick-up in which they were travelling collided head-on with a truck.

The incident occurred under the Chagaon Makhan Police station limit, a few km away from the Wednesday accident spot.

Commuters between Indore and Khandwa say rash driving by bus drivers was the main reason behind the mishaps. Jagdish Chandra Verma, a commuter between Indore and Khandwa said bus drivers raced with each other to reach their destination before the scheduled time. They are in a hurry to pick up the maximum number of passengers to increase profits, he said.

Khandwa deputy superintendent of police (traffic) Bharat Pratap Saloki said the rising number of road accidents on the same spot is a matter of concern.

The new system will help to curb accidents rein in traffic violators, he said.

Explaining how the system works, Saloki said the traffic police will monitor the speed of vehicles by installing the speed radar in accident-prone spots.

“Once we see a bus or any vehicle violating speed limit, the radar will alert the respective police station. On the basis of records, the traffic department will slap fines on the owners of the vehicles under the Motor Vehicle Act,” he said.

Omprakash Arya, a bus operator from Khandwa said bus drivers usually compete with each other to pick up more passengers.

The 130-km journey between Indore and Khandwa normally takes about four hours to cover, Arya said. “The bus drivers usually pick up passengers on the ghat section of the highway between Simrol village to Balwada and to make up for the lost time, they race their vehicles.”

Taking a dig at the regional transport office (RTO) for issuing large number of permits on one single route, Arya said: “The concerned authority must regularly monitor the traffic frequency on a particular route and issue permits accordingly.”