The Kerala Human Rights Commission (KHRC) on Monday issued a slew of directions, such as regulating the use of motorbikes with high-capacity engines, installing speed breakers and increasing police patrolling, to prevent speeding and the resulting accidents on roads in the State.
KHRC chairman Justice Antony Dominic also directed the State government and the police to ensure that there are no signs, hoardings or flags on road medians to prevent obstruction of view of vehicles on the other side.
The commission also directed authorities to install streetlights where they were not present, and put up warning signs and fence off road medians to prevent speeding and accidents.
Besides that, it also directed that plants on the medians should be checked frequently to ensure they are not obscuring the view from the other side, and provisions be made for people to cross the road safely.
Increasing patrolling
It also issued directions to the police to patrol more areas to prevent vehicle racing.
The Commission gave the directions after it took cognisance of the issue on its own, based on news reports of a road accident near the Thiruvallam bypass in January this year that claimed two lives – of a woman pedestrian and a bike rider.
According to the police, the accident occurred due to speeding as the biker was participating in an illegal motorbike race and the two-wheeler hit the woman while she was crossing the road early in the morning.
During the proceedings before the commission, the Transport Commissioner said that roads in Kerala were not suitable for high engine capacity motorbikes, like the 1000 cc bike involved in the accident.
No streetlights along NH
The police told the commission that trees on the road medians were obscuring the view from the other side and despite several letters to the National Highways Authority of India, it was not putting up streetlights.
It also told the commission that there were no speed warning signs, zebra crossings or speed breakers at the accident site.