Swift Action by CP/DCP/ACP Slap Fine on Driver of Bus No 41 A for shrill Horn & Reckless Driving

Swift Action by Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil /Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Lakshmi Ganesh and Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Manjunath Shetty. CP Nails Driver of Bus No 41 A bearing Reg no KA 19 C 6876 for shrill Horn & Reckless Driving, after a commuter sent a complaint to the Police Commissioner yesterday evening.

Mangaluru: Almost everyone who has lived in Mangaluru or other big cities would know what happens when the traffic signal shows 10 seconds to the green on the timer. There’s no amount of logic which can explain the honking that begins then as if expecting the vehicles in front to magically vanish or somehow clear out faster. Horn not OK please: Honking without reason is illegal, so we might as well stop it. Honking unnecessarily on the roads is common but don’t let that make you believe you can get away with it. And for that matter, if you honk shrill horns the cops will get you- and thanks to energetic and tough cop our new Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil IPS who took over the post recently, has been doing a good job cracking down on crimes and also on traffic rules violators.

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Apart from taking actions on motorists parking illegally on streets, rash riding/driving, breaking traffic rules, vehicles letting fish waste water on streets, tinted glass vehicles, also cracking down on illegal betting, and ganja dealers, and now he has cracked down on drivers using shrill horns, and booked cases over 100, and today adding one more to his credit. But one thing for, the motorists in Mangaluru don’t learn by their mistakes- they keep on continuing the same mistakes of breaking the traffic laws, and keep on paying the fines. The scenario is the same across the city, with little regard for even hospitals or schools that could be in the vicinity. But don’t let the frequency of this behaviour make you believe that it’s legal to do so, or that people cannot be held accountable for it.

But when was the last time you saw someone getting pulled over by the traffic police for assaulting your ears? I guess during the last Road Safety Week 2018? Oh well-but anyways nothing much can be done- at least now our cops are doing one heckuva job in slapping fines on traffic violators, under the able leadership of Sandeep Patil- and the Friday Phone-in-programme has much to do against all these traffic violators. But here is an incident that happened last evening, where a citizen unable to bear the act of a driver, sent a complaint to the DCP stating-

“DCP Sir, there is a city bus route number 41A bearing registration number- KA 19 C 6876 which has a horrible horn. Today at 6.40 pm the driver of that bus followed close an auto-rickshaw and couple of two-wheelers from Reliance Super Mart all the way to Lady hill, honking non-stop. The driver also did not even slow down at the zebra crossing in front of More Supermarket, thereby not allowing the pedestrians to cross over to the other side of the road. Please do the needful Sir, for which the people will be indebted to you”.

Taking the complaint very seriously, the police commissioner, DCP and ACP swung into action and took care of the situation- and CP Sandeep Patil who is quick in posting the results on twitter had mentioned that “Action was taken on the bus no KA 19/C 6876. Fined Rs 1,000. Removed shrill horn and a stern warning was given to the driver, Sir”. CP has also posted pictures of the cops conducting the drive and bus horns which were seized. Job well done all you comrades- the City needs police officials like you who will act quickly towards citizens grievances on traffic or civic-related issues.

Even though Section 21 of Rules of the Road Regulations 1989, formed under section 188 of the Indian Motor Vehicles Act, states about “Use of horns and Silence Zones”, where it essentially says that a driver of a vehicle shall not “sound the horn needlessly or continuously or more than necessary to ensure safety”. It also prohibits blowing the horn in silence zones, fitting or using “multi-toned horn giving harsh, shrill or alarming noise”. Even vehicles creating undue noise while running or driving vehicles with “a muffler causing alarming sound”, are not allowed- but unfortunately one thing about our local bus drivers is that they sill have no shame, even after they have been fined by the traffic cops for using loud horns many times earlier, they still repeat the same offense.

The increasing number of traffic violations has sent the cops on overdrive as they penalized these drivers during rush hours for honking and using loud horns-thereby raking in big bucks in fines. Many a time, the cops don’t heed to any excuses put forth to them by the bus drivers or conductors, instead coolly punch in the license plate numbers on their Blackberry’s and issue them the fine violation ticket popped out from the hand device.

During the recent Phone-in programme to the Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil speaking about Shrill horn, menace had said, “Lately we have received complaints from the educational institutions, hospitals, religious places and citizens about loud honking by the bus drivers. Normally drivers don’t honk at intersections, especially when they see a traffic cop. As a result, we are forced to do surprise checks and stop vehicles, take them to the side of the road, test their horns and then take action. It is a laborious and time-consuming task and so is the new initiative we have launched against these shrill horns used by these buses. We will continue our drive until the bus owners/drivers remove these loud horns.” As said by Police Commissioner, he has kept his word and cracked down on these “Honking” drivers?

While complimenting the Police Commissioner, DCP, ACP and other police personnel for a job well done in nailing this bus no 41 A and its crew, we urge them to do similar checks every other day, only then we can bring the noise pollution of this shrill down. Already each one is under terrible stress driving and riding and walking in Mangaluru roads. We hear frequent shrill or musical horns mostly from these private buses, and they also use it in silent zones and even midnight. Hearing those horns many have experienced severe heartbeats due to sudden high decibel noise exposure. This already creates a serious mental and physical disturbance on the human population. So shrill horns should be totally banned and severe fines and punishment to be given to drivers who use them. Mangaluru Traffic Police awake ….arise! Bring peace to Mangalureans. Thanks, Top Cop and your team- a job well done!