Panaji: ‘Renovacao’(renewal), the pastoral bulletin of the archdiocese of Goa and Daman, has hit out at Goa traffic police for not acting against drivers who drive with halogen lights, blinding drivers coming from the opposite direction and causing accidents.
An article in the latest edition of ‘Renovacao,’ written by Mapusa-based advocate, Antonio Lobo, states that “Goa’s roads are known far and wide as one of the worst ‘killing fields’ among all the roads in India.”
Recent statistics released by Goa police reveal that a person is killed in a road accident every 30 hours.
“This writer has not seen any fine ever having being imposed upon drivers who callously drive, with full beam on and sometimes with halogen lights, which result in blinding the driver of the vehicle coming from the opposite direction and causing many accidents,” Lobo stated.
“Not a single death is ascribed to stray animals on the roads, wrong side driving or to multi-pillion riding. There seems to be a conspiracy of silence with regard to these infringements of the law,” he states, adding that the enforcers themselves are many times ignorant of the rules of traffic.
“The reasons generally given by Goa police for main causes of deaths on the road is drunken driving and
overspeeding. This writer has seen no mention of the other causes of death such as freely-roaming cattle and other animals, nor those caused by stationary vehicles parked on highways and other roads without any warning signs, nor by vehicles moving in the wrong direction,” Lobo stated.
He also called for a zero tolerance policy towards any infringement on traffic rules.
Sustained education on rules through social media and a move towards zero tolerance policy towards any
infringement of rules is necessary to ensure that death rate on our roads decrease, writes Mapusa-based
advocate Antonio Lobo.
(Times of India)