Tough Cop DCP Uma Prashanth Cracks Down on Drivers Honking Shrill Horns-159 Cases Booked

Tough Cop DCP Uma Prashanth Cracks Down on Drivers Honking Shrill Horns-159 Cases Booked

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 DCP {Crime} Uma Prashanth who took over the post in October 2017, and since then has been doing a good job cracking down on crimes and also on traffic rules violators

DCP (Crime) Uma Prashanth

And as part of the ongoing “Traffic Management and Road Safety week” she taken actions on motorists parking illegally on streets, and now she has cracked down on drivers using shrill horns, and booked cases against 159. 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.

Section 21 of Rules of the Road Regulations 1989, formed under the section 188 of the Indian Motor Vehicles Act, is about “Use of horns and Silence Zones”. 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 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 2017? 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. The crack down on motorists by Mangaluru West Police Station near Gokarnanatha College and Badriya College in the City earned the department a few extra bucks through fines on 159 cases booked against drivers using shrill horns. Local traffic police also cracked down motorists parking their vehicles on no-parking areas, thereby locking the wheels of over 50 vehicles.

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 offence. The increasing number of traffic violations has sent the cops on an overdrive as they penalized these drivers during rush hours for honking and using loud horns-thereby raking in big bucks in fines. The traffic cops also slapped fines on conductors for not wearing uniforms, and also drivers for not stopping at the designated bus stops. The cops didn’t heed to any excuses put forth to them by the bus drivers or conductors, instead coolly punched in the license plate numbers on their Blackberry’s and issued them the fine violation ticket popped out from the hand device.

During the recent Phone-in programme to the Police Commissioner T R Suresh, DCP Uma Prashanth who was also present there speaking to Team Mangalorean had said, “Lately we have receiving complaints from the education 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 DCP, she has kept her word and cracked down on these “Honking” drivers?

Harsh and (sometimes) impractical it may be, but the only way out is to ban horns completely in busy urban areas. The sort of proposed policing is practically impossible. Who decides acceptable tones, loudness levels etc., and how to ensure our ingenious population doesn’t come up with workarounds? When a hundred people are honking away in maddening traffic, it doesn’t serve any purpose anyway as nobody can make out who’s honking at whom. If someone won’t move when he sees you in his SUV, fat chance he will when you honk at him. In today’s crackdown on loud horns, the cops did remove loud horns- some horns were fitted in a secret place, but the cops were able to trace them. Each bus found to be using horns with a frequency above 75 decibels were fined. The police inspected the frequency of the horn sounds using a sound level meter.

While complimenting the traffic cops for a job well done, and urging 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 serious mental and physical disturbance on human population. So shrill horns should be totally banned and severe fines and punishment to be given to drivers who uses them. Mangaluru Traffic Police awake ….arise! Bring peace to Mangalureans. Thanks DCP Uma and your team- a job well done!

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