Not halting at zebra crossing on signal makes up 90% of e-challans issued by traffic police
Not halting before the zebra crossing, also known as the stop line has emerged as major offence in the city. Representation pic
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The e-challan system introduced in the city in October has revealed rampant indiscipline among motorists. Since the inception of the system, 50,000 out of the 57,144 challans have been issued to motorists who don’t halt before the stop line at signals. On Thursday, a record number of 4,562 challans were issued to motorists, compared to the previous 3,401.
The e-challan system was introduced from October 5 to bring transparency in collection of fines and reduce the margin of error. Within a fortnight of its introduction, police issued almost a thousand challans per day. The team is now recording the trends in the traffic violations in the city.
City’s major offence
Not halting before the zebra crossing, also known as the stop line has emerged as major offence in the city. It constitutes more than 90% of the total traffic violations. “From October 5, we have issued 57,144 e-challans till November 9, out of them 52,000 challans were issued for crossing the halting line followed by riding without helmet and driving without seatbelt, said an officer.
Though not halting before the stop line does not sound like a major offence, but traffic officials say it is one of the root causes of traffic jams on major roads. If every vehicle starts stopping behind the line, clearing traffic will be easy. Instead, every motorist tries to come forward as the signal inches close to turning green and this creates jams in major chowks and becomes a threat to pedestrians.
Major violations unreported
Though e-challans issued through CCTV surveillance trying to bring discipline among motorists, major traffic violations go unreported through this system.
“Motorist jumping signals, driving without seatbelts cannot be tracked with CCTV as its not visible through cameras. We have to depend on cops standing at junction for catching violators,” said another officer. Also, after sunset, headlights make it difficult for cops in the monitoring room to read the number plate, so the cops at junctions start working then,” he added.
Record breaking challans
On Thursday, traffic cops issued record-breaking challans to motorists. Till 6.45pm 4,562 e-challans were issued.
“It’s a record-breaking number of challans issued on any day, and we are still issuing it,” said an officer from the traffic department, adding, “the previous record of issuing most challans was 3,401, but surpassed it today. We start monitoring major junctions in the city from 8 am and continue it till 8pm. Our staff works in two shifts, with 24 cops at a time.
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