If you doubted RTC buses were the biggest of all violators of traffic rule and are a menace on road, there’s hard data now to strengthen this suspicion.
A special drive by the city traffic police on RTC buses saw 452 cases booked against errant drivers for flouting traffic rules in a 30-day period between May 21 and June 19. The drive was held in areas under the jurisdiction of 25 police stations across the city.
Additional personnel were deployed at traffic signals and bus bays as part of the special drive. According to data released by the traffic police on Wednesday, most cases related to signal jumping, stop-line violation, not stopping in bus bays and reckless driving. Significantly, most cases were registered in areas under Begumpet police station: 161 in all, including 83 cases in which buses were found flouting the stop-line rule, and 42 for jumping signal.
Deputy police commissioner (traffic) P.V.S. Ramakrishna said that the traffic police are looking at the issue with concern. “We conducted awareness programmes for more than 5,000 RTC drivers and have instructed them on the need for discipline on road over the last three months,” he said. While some traffic cops said there have been a rise in the number of complaints, of late, regarding reckless driving by RTC bus drivers, APSRTC chairman and managing director A.K. Khan said the notion than RTC buses are the biggest violators on road is not true. “The situation has improved after we took initiatives in collaboration with traffic cops to educate the drivers,” he said.