LAHORE: Traffic police on Monday kicked off a drive in the provincial capital against those violating traffic rules, particularly the motorcyclists, amid complaints of imposing heavy fines on them, which many think, are beyond their paying capacity.

The prime focus of the traffic wardens remained motorcyclists whom they slap fines on city’s roads for not wearing helmets and on other charges.

The main focus of the campaign was on those not using helmet while riding bikes as the traffic wardens were seen intercepting motorcyclists, making them stand in queues on the city roads for giving them fine tickets.

The helmet rule was vigorously enforced on The Mall, where motorcyclists without the safety gear were denied entry by the traffic police.

Drive launched to curb fatal road accidents

An official told Dawn that at as many as 32 points on The Mall the wardens were deployed with special instructions to check entry of motorcyclists without helmets.

As per traffic police figures, the wardens imposed heavy fines on 5,315 motorcyclists on the first day of the crackdown, including 1,276 those who tried to enter The Mall without wearing helmet.

More than 40 wardens were especially deployed on various city roads, in addition to regular ones, to make the campaign successful.

In the later phase, he said, the scheme would be replicated on five other major arteries of the city where the motorcyclists without helmets would not be allowed.

The campaign was launched after the traffic police got court directions to check traffic violations by motorcyclists without helmets, resulting in fatal accidents in the city.

Quoting a recent analysis report prepared by traffic police, he said, from 2013 to 2018 as many as 70,000 newly registered motorbikes, 520,000 cars and 207,000 motorcycle rickshaws started using the city’s roads, further aggravating the traffic situation in Lahore.

He said nearly 6,000 traffic accidents were taking place daily in the city, particularly involving motorbikes, claiming lives of many road users and leaving many others disabled for life. The campaign was launched with a view to bring the toll down by declaring the use of helmets for motorcyclists mandatory.

For the purpose, he said, a summary requiring legislation and increase in fine amount had been moved by the traffic police to the inspector general of Punjab police through the Lahore capital city police officer for approval of the provincial assembly.

Lahore Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) retired Capt Liaqat Ali Malik proposed that fine for motorcyclists should be increased from Rs200 to Rs1,000 and for cars and jeeps from Rs500 to Rs2,000.

Another official said the proposed increase in the fine amount caused concern among the citizens, particularly the motorcyclists, who termed it unjustified, arguing that it would further burden them financially as they used the bikes for being an economical mode of travelling.

They also argued that since the motorcycle was mostly used by the students, lower government employees and workers in the private sector, the hefty fines would adversely affect their budgets.

Meanwhile, a proposal by Lahore DIG Operations Shahzad Akbar “added fuel to fire” as he recommended a fine increase up to Rs2000 for motorcyclists and Rs10,000 for the motorists.

An official admitted that on the first day of the drive the traffic wardens imposed heavy fines on the motorcyclists prior to the legislation.

He said the traffic police fine slips mentioned 24 codes (traffic laws) and on the first day of the campaign, the wardens imposed fines by reporting violations of more than one codes to most of the motorcyclists. However, he claimed that the fine amounts ranged from Rs500 to Rs700.

In addition to that, a large number of motorcyclists were also fined through the E-Challan system.

CTO Liaqat Malik defended the proposed fine increase saying it was being done on the court’s directions with the prime objective of curbing fatal accidents.

He said the traffic police kicked off the campaign after creating massive public awareness about the initiative during the last three months.

He was of the view that imposition of heavy fines (as proposed in the summary) was being successfully practiced world over to manage traffic and to curb fatal road accidents.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2018