Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Incidents of road rage taking a violent turn are on the rise in the city. In the first quarter of the year, January to April, 62 such incidents have been recorded in the city. The trend continues to soar amid the sweltering heat. The situation is coming to such a pass that even in cases of minor collisions, people lose their temper in a jiffy and resort to assault even with rods and sticks.
The women are at a higher risk of being violated during such incidents. In almost 15 incidents of road rage from January to April, the women victims of road rage were manhandled and even molested in broad daylight in crowded spots of the city. To make matters worse, even if such incidents take place in front of the traffic police personnel, they appear to be shrugging off their responsibilities and advise the quarrelling parties to get their issues resolved at the nearest police station.
Question remains if the traffic police are just confined to penalise people for helmet and seatbelt violations, or also supposed to tighten the reins on those driving /riding haphazardly, risking others’ lives.
Instances of drivers losing cool
In January, a techie employed at a private firm rammed his vehicle into the car of an additional district judge in Bag Sewaniya. When the judge’s driver got out of the car to stop the accused, the techie tried running his car over him.
The driver, however, had a narrow escape. The accused was booked, but was not apprehended due to unknown reason. In mid-April, two cars collided in Bag Sewaniya and the driver of one car was ready to compensate for the loss borne by the other car driver. The other car driver, however, was bent on getting the other man booked. He reached the police station, while the other man, in frenzy, consumed poison kept inside his car and later died.
In another such incident in the last week of April, a woman doctor employed at a government hospital was heading somewhere in a car when a biker dashed her car in Kamla Nagar. When the woman protested, the biker hurled abuses at her, hurled a stone at her car’s windshield and fled the spot. She later got the man booked at the Kamla Nagar police station, but the accused is on the lam.
Plans afoot to address road rage: DCP (Traffic)
When the issue was put before the deputy commissioner of police (Traffic) Sanjay Singh, he told Free Press that currently, just two devices for speed monitoring are being utilised in the city. He added that more devices will be brought into use and the reins will be tightened on those misbehaving on roads after a crash.
