Fog, crushing season: ‘Get reflectors installed, your rear lights fixed’

Traffic Police and NH&MP to launch operation against overloading

RAHIM YAR KHAN: The Traffic Police and National Highway and Motorway Police have decided to launch a joint campaign against overloading and to encourage heavy vehicle drivers to get reflectors installed.

This was stated on Saturday by the spokesmen for NH&MP and Traffic Police.

NH&MP representatives Sarfaraz Ahmed and Aasim Jalal said the decision had been taken keeping in view that the crushing season at sugar mills had started as had the fog. With the crushing season and the fig, the number of traffic accidents increases manifold, they said.

The NH&MP officials said that slow moving (donkey and buffalo carts, bicycles, motorcycle rickshaw and pickups) and heavy vehicular traffic (tractors and tractor trolleys) were a hazard, especially when there was fog. They said the drivers of slow and heavy vehicles should get reflectors installed. The officials also advised drivers to get rear lights fixed, in case they were broken, or get new ones if their vehicles were missing rear lights. The number of accidents could be reduced if drivers refrained from changing lanes, said the officials.

The campaign would also encourage citizens to keep their vehicles in a good condition so as to reduce the risk of accidents. People can contribute to making the roads safer for themselves and for others, the NH&MP officials said.

Sergeant Shakeel Ahmed, who represented the Traffic Police, said that they were doing their best to check overloading on heavy and slow-moving vehicles. Ahmed asked the sugar mills to help the traffic police in helping curb overloading by fining or purchasing the sugar cane at a lower rate.



“It is immoral to put the lives of others in danger for a little money,” Ahmed said of drivers who overload their vehicles.

The official said that the police would talk to sugar mills and seek their help. The police, he said, are thinking of asking mill owners if they could set up special desks at the mills so that any incoming or outgoing vehicles could be checked and fined for overloading and reflectors.

The Traffic Police are yet to send their recommendations to the DPO.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2012.