Traffic issues: Verify registration numbers before buying cars, advises ACLC

Potential buyers don't know when they are paying for a stolen car, point out speakers

KARACHI: In order to avoid the troubles of buying a stolen car, one must verify the registration number of the vehicle before finalising the transaction.

A representative of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC), Khalid Kalam, said this while addressing the session titled 'Role of ACLC'. The session was held on the third day of the week-long articulated training for traffic police, transport officials, transporters, road users and drivers of various public transport vehicles. The workshop was arranged by the NED University in collaboration with Component Implementation Unit — Sindh of Pakistan Sustainable Transport Project (Pakstran) on Thursday.

"If you spend millions on a four-wheeler, you might as well spend a little energy and time on its checking," said Kalam, adding that all it takes to verify the registration number is a call to ACLC.

Talking about the rising incidence of vehicle snatching and theft, ACLC administration DSP Ali Hassan shed light on the three phases of the illegal practice. First, he said, a culprit snatches or steals the vehicle. "In the second phase, the snatcher dumps the car with the supplier who, in the third phase, supplies the car to the demander," he said. According to Hassan, the demander buys the stolen or snatched vehicle, prepares its new documentation file and sells it in the market to people. These people are unaware of the fact that the cars they are buying have been stolen from someone.

Calling it a 'white-collar crime', Hassan described how old documents are tampered with and mostly destroyed to be replaced by new ones. "Once the records have been changed, such cars are sold to gullible buyers."

According to Kalam, the ACLC uses number plates and chassis numbers to ascertain stolen cars. "Every car company has been assigned different font for number plates which a common man is unaware of," he said. "If the word 'Sindh' is embossed right under the registration number in the centre, the number plate is original," he said. "And if the word 'Karachi' is embossed, it is a fake one." As for the chassis number, he told the audience to look for the numbers; they should also be in a straight line with equal gaps to be authentic.

Accidents

On the second day of the week-long training workshop on Wednesday, a session titled 'Common Trends in Road Accidents' was also held. Talking about the rising number of road accidents, NED urban and infrastructure department chairperson Prof Mir Shabbar Ali said that recklessness is the cause of most of these accidents.

According to Ali, the age-group most vulnerable to accidents was 16 to 30 year olds as the mode of transport for them is motorcycles. In order to make the motorcycle a safer ride, Ali proposed the idea of segregated riders' lanes.

When the same nature of vehicles collide into each other, the intensity of the accident is always less. "For example, if a car collides into a car the damage would be lesser as compared to a collision with the truck," he pointed out. "Same is the case with motorcycles." He added that this kind of a model has been successful in Malaysia.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2015.