Srinagar, Sept 14: How deadly is the speed of tippers plying in the City at night? Well, while the examples could be many, in the latest a loaded tipper was driving down  the Airport Road so fast that it jumped over footpath and rammed straight into shops at Magarmal Bagh. No one was hurt in the incident.

THE INCIDENT
 Police said incident occurred last night at 10: 45 PM when the loaded tipper JK04-9684 carrying boulders hit Qazi Complex building. The tipper was heading towards Jehangir Chowk when the driver is believed to have lost control over his speeding carrier and the vehicle jumped over the footpath on the western side.
 SHO Saddar Police Station Zahoor Ahmed said nobody was hurt in the incident adding that the tipper driver has been detained.
 Recapping the incident locals said the bang was big that they though some explosion had taken place. But as we came out we saw the tipper inside the shops.
 The traders fraternity has expressed serious concern over the issue saying “our shops are becoming vulnerable to damages because of over speeding.”
 “Earlier their used to be a threat of thefts but now tipper movement seems to be the latest in the list,” said a delegation of traders of Magarmal Bagh area.
 They have demanded a check on the speed of load carriers.

THE TREND
 Complaints of allegedly reckless driving by tipper drivers is nothing new. Just three months back, a speeding tipper mowed down a Shopian man near Civil Secretariat in the City. Till now the police is clueless about the tipper which had managed to flee from the spot.
 Five months back, a speeding tipper had damaged a high tension transmission line on the Airport Road plunging the area into darkness for around a day till a new pole was erected.
 
DEADLY RACE
 Venturing out on the main roads turns a deadly affair after 8:30 PM, when the no entry restrictions end and the heavy vehicles are allowed to venture into the civil lines. A High Court direction has banned the entry of heavy vehicles into the City during daytime.
 But the movement of heavy vehicles particularly tippers looks equally deadly even in the night hours.
 The moment the clock strikes 8:30, a convey of tippers waiting on the highway simply rush in into the civil lines allegedly creating havoc for others moving on the roads.
 A truck driver while pleading over-speeding said: “Our earnings depend on the number of trips we make. So we simply try to drive as fast as possible so that we could make more trips.”

PUBLIC APPEAL
 On the other hand, given the over speeding of tippers, civil society has been demanding that the no entry restrictions be extended from 8:30 PM to 10:30 PM so that the routine traffic doesn’t fall prey.
 People have been saying that driving after 8:30PM is risky as tippers zoom across at high speed.
 
HI-TECH TAMING
 Observes said the allegedly erring tipper drivers could be tamed if CCTV cameras and Speed Guns(a gadget which measures speed of a vehicle) are installed on the main roads so that who so ever violates the speed limit of 40 KM/hour could be identified and subsequently fined.
 “What is the fun of Speed Guns when the traffic police doesn’t utilize them,” said a expert on traffic management.
 Besides they said a special team of traffic police should keep an eye on the movement of the heavy vehicles during night hours.

THE IRONY
 While the Traffic police could do all this, for now the department is “understaffed” as mere 250 men in blue man the entire City traffic as against the requirement of 1000 cops.
 Despite the traffic mess, the coalition government has failed to adequately strengthen the Traffic police so that it could depute special teams for night duty. Pertinently traffic police goes off the roads in the night hours presumably after 8: 30 PM.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 14 Sep 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 14 Sep 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 IST