Traffic hazard : Loader Rickshaws risk road safety in Pindi

Around 500 such vehicles without license plates and registration copies regularly tool along city highways

ISLAMABAD:

Plying in fleets across most major and minor thoroughfares of the city, three-wheelers known as loader rickshaws are fast becoming a threat to Rawalpindi’s road-safety. Often unregistered and notorious for traffic collisions, these flimsy carts are a common sight on highways, where they are used to transport goods from market to market.

These three-wheeled vehicles, which lack stability, are made to tow behind a motorcycle and considered unsafe for highway use in most circumstances. However, given the local administration’s callousness, loader rickshaws have been left unchecked to run on the city’s streets.

According to a survey conducted by The Express Tribune, there are over 5,00 loader rickshaws without license plates and registration copies, which regularly tool along Rawalpindi’s highways. Drivers of these motor vehicles are known to further flout traffic rules by driving without a helmet, while having no safety mechanisms in place for passengers in tow.

Speaking on conditions of anonymity, a loader rickshaw driver from Rawalpindi told that it costs anywhere between Rs50, 000 to 60,000 to build this hybrid vehicle. “It may not be the safest mode of transport, but this is all I can afford to feed my family of six.

Before this, I used to beg on the streets, which helped me gather funds for my vehicle. Now I make a living loading people’s goods on the rickshaw on the main highways of Mandi and Rawalpindi, while my family still begs on the streets,” shared the driver. “We work under the blazing sun all day, so it’s impossible to avoid the police on these streets. They often stop us, but don’t really issue a challan or anything of the sort. More often than not, they let us go with a warning,” he added.

On the other hand, according to Regional Transport Authority Secretary Abbas Mehr, the Rawalpindi traffic police does not accept bribes or indulge in unlawful transactions with non-compliant drivers. “Our job is to monitor public transport routes, while a separate authority is responsible for issuing license and registrations. Legally speaking, these loader rickshaws are illegal and for a very good reason. They are a risk to public safety and cost many lives,” Mehr expressed.

A concerned citizen speaking to The Express Tribune, shared that these three-wheeled goods-transporting vehicles are often heavily loaded and driven by criminally young drivers, which makes them extremely dangerous. “Motorcycles and other vehicles are often issued challans by the police but these deadly vehicles are left to run unchecked on our thoroughfares. The government should take note of this and work towards creating safer roads.”

 

Published in The Express Tribune, Septe0mber 28^th, 2020.