[hyd_traveller]

A news article has been published in the Hyderabad City Edition of The Deccan Chronicle of 03-Jul-2010 on Page 3 titled :

"High-speed vehicles face midnight ban"

Taking note of increasing road accidents, the state government has decided to ban movements of high-speed vehicles on accident-prone roads connecting pilgrim centres and national highways from midnight to sunrise.

High-speed vehicles, including buses and cars, will not be allowed on roads connecting Hyderabad to Tirupati and Shirdi, Vijayawada to Tirupati and Annavaram and on NH7 and 9 from 12 midnight to 5 am. The new rule will be implemented from September or October. The state is also contemplating making it mandatory for trucks and buses to have a second driver and drivers should change every 300 km.

[Blue Thunder]

Wow, very progressive thinking indeed !!!

[jeevmenon]

mm... Not very sure. Vijayawada to Tirupati - would be on the NH5 till Nayudupeta and into SriKalahasti. So, what if I want to go from Chennai to Vijayawada, that takes NH5 and would get affected as well. Similarly Chennai-Hyd - typically we would use the NH7 or the NH5 and that would be affected as well. So "connecting pilgrim centres" is debatable. I typically get out for my long drives at 3-ish in the morning.

Not that I dont want to avoid accidents - it will help for sure - but restrictions brings in a feeling of helplessness.

Then there is the point of the night-ban on the Karnataka-Kerala forest route because of wild-life traffic. Here, maybe I agree a little - since animals dont have a voice and are in a way ignorant of human ways.

Interesting topic! I dont know if we have some similar threads that have discussed this before. Maybe we should convert this to a voting thread.

[aargee]

Looks like more of business, to me it sounds ridiculous. Instead of taking measures (that involves investment), the Govt is taking cheaper steps to avoid plying of vehicles. So why not the Govt disallow any vehicles to pass by anytime & brag India's first 100% accident free zone?

[Samurai]

Instead, if they put street lights along the way, maintain the roads well, hold mandatory highway driving lessons to all drivers, the accidents can come down drastically.

[MX6]

Wow. Effectively, they will push the accidents to before midnight or after sun-rise. Now how do they define what's a high speed vehicle? A run away truck with a brake failure can also be a high speed vehicle! I'd have appreciated if the ban was for vehicles in Naxal infested areas in the night!

[Fordmanchau]

Not a very good idea indeed!!
The very purpose of Govt of India's focus on improving road infrastructure will be defeated with this law.The whole purpose of building such four lane highways is to promote and enable unhindered and round the clock movement of vehicles.
Imagine the traffic situation after 5a.m in the morning. The whole purpose of cutting the travel time through such four lane highways will be lost.
Instead the government should increase the highway patrol units, I saw one such unit on NH9 while on trip to Annavaram clearing up the Jams.
But to totally restrict the movement of all vehicles from 12 a.m to 5a.m is not at all a good idea.
Even a 2 wheeler can run at 90kmph and that is a high speed by any norms.

[KRRaj]

Wow!! What thinking? What about accidents in the day then? As long people dont have proper driving manners, things would not improve.

[Bigzero]

Wow. talk about backward steps being taken.

Ban "high speed" vehicles from 12 to 5.

What is "high speed" here? anything that can go faster than 60kmph? or 80? or 100?

I have an idea on what they should enforce to reduce accidents between 12 am and 5 am.

- All vehicles with no tail lights should be banned.
- Clearer road markings and signages ( lot of improvement here lately, I must admit )
- tractors, bullock carts should be banned ( they can ply during daytime till a proper alternative emerges )
- more night highway patrolling and radar guns
- reasonable speed limits, and clear and frequent displays of speed limits so that one never fails to notice it.
- serrations/grooves on the road before one approaches sharp curves or sharp speedlimit reductions so that the drivers get the drift
- serrations/grooves on the road shoulders ( the asphalted portion just outsied the outer white line ) so that semi asleep drivers are alerted when they drift )
- proper road shoulders with no suspension-destroying level differences
- demarkate and enforce left lane truck traffic on multi-lane highways
- severe fines for wrong side driving on divided highways
- Clear marking of humps and signs that scream "hump ahead" from good enough distance.
- Make it mandatory to switch on hazard lights when parked on roadside. Ban vehicles without hazard lights.
- improve and demarkate turn lanes properly on divided highways . I see turn lanes in most of the newly developed highways, that is a good sign.

There are many more - Can the govt focus on at least some of them rather than going for blanket bans ?


To top all of this, if the Govt has any desire to reduce road accidents, they should pump some money into the awareness part. advertisements in papers, TV, roadside, pamphlet, and of course enforce awareness sessions at driving schools and at the RTA/license stage as well. For example,

- Clear awareness on what the dotted lines, full lines, yellow lines, double lines etc mean. As of now, most motorists dont even notice them.
- how to take a right turn. I am amazed at the ignorance levels on this simple maneouver.
- The importance on staying on your lane.
- how to overtake. Most people dont have a damn idea on how to do this. And when NOT to overtake.
- the importance of not tailgating. Too much of this on highways.
- How to brake your vehicle properly.
....

Another idea will be to question serial offenders on many of these aspect to test their awareness. If they dont come through, cancel their licenses and let them go through the whole process again.

Well its a saturday morning, and I seem to be on a rant mode. Looks like there are far too many things the govt needs to do and the motorists need to adopt. ...


one word comes to my mind: Corruption. If that isnt handled, we will keep hearing of all these bizarre rules being implemented.

[ASHISHPALLOD]

Current condition of roads, vehicles and driving habits, this is the short cut that govt thinks to avoid night accidents.
Right or wrong, the decision will save the lives.
And don't bash the govt for this right/wrong decision, its the very few maniac drivers among ourselves who are responsible for this decision.

[xingamazon]

Lots of things are unclear regarding the news. First how do you define High speed vehicles.
It just cant be based on high speed capability of vehicles.

Next point, why build roads when you want to stop vehicle movements. Just day driving is 50% wastage of the toll amount and untilized resource.

Can someone confirm if the news is confirmed or not, looks like some ambitious reporter trying to catch limelight by reporting mis-facts.
It would have been more saner to try implementing speed limiter like what Karnataka attempted than do something this funny.

[niks_devil666]

Why don't they stop selling/registering vehicles in the state and ban the vehicles plying on the road. Only cycles and bullock carts will be road legal. This will bring down accidents to almost zero.
Great thinking by the govt. !

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by xingamazon

Lots of things are unclear regarding the news. First how do you define High speed vehicles.
It just cant be based on high speed capability of vehicles.

Next point, why build roads when you want to stop vehicle movements. Just day driving is 50% wastage of the toll amount and untilized resource.

Can someone confirm if the news is confirmed or not, looks like some ambitious reporter trying to catch limelight by reporting mis-facts.
It would have been more saner to try implementing speed limiter like what Karnataka attempted than do something this funny.

The news is confirmed ... it is not some trigger happy reporter's mis-facts.

It is a proposal by some over zealous officials and not yet a GO.

There is always a chance that the proposal may never see the light of the day. I sincerely hope so that the GO never sees the light.

We have to keep in mind that most buses run in the nights. Cancellation of these buses will result in a public hue and cry.

Also one Mr Diwakar Reddy (owner of Diwakar Travels Diwakar Travels | Diwakar Travels Online Booking | Diwakar Volvo | Diwakar Volvo bus tickets | Diwakar travels Ticket booking | Diwakar Volvo bus) is a powerful man in AP politics and is a senior minister whose business will suffer and I guess he will not allow the GO to become a reality.

The background of this proposal stems from a recent accident in the outskirts of Hyderabad.

I am providing the essence of the accident (and may have some facts wrong, so please excuse) : A few brothers and their families were on a pilgrimage from Gujarat to Tirupati in a scorpio and crossed Hyderabad towards Vijayawada. At around 4am, they were travelling at high speed some where near Ramoji Film City, the driver saw the divider ending and feeling that the divider road ends there, moved in the opposite traffic lane to overtake a heavy vehicle, when he suddenly realised that the divider has started again. He was now on the wrong side of the road and facing the oncoming traffic so he pulled to the right side of the road and continued to drive till he met a oncoming truck face-on resulting in deaths of 8 out of 10 people in the scoropio there and then. Other 2 were critical in the hospital as per the papers.

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

I am providing the essence of the accident (and may have some facts wrong, so please excuse) : A few brothers and their families were on a pilgrimage from Gujarat to Tirupati in a scorpio and crossed Hyderabad towards Vijayawada. At around 4am, they were travelling at high speed some where near Ramoji Film City, the driver saw the divider ending and feeling that the divider road ends there, moved in the opposite traffic lane to overtake a heavy vehicle, when he suddenly realised that the divider has started again. He was now on the wrong side of the road and facing the oncoming traffic so he pulled to the right side of the road and continued to drive till he met a oncoming truck face-on resulting in deaths of 8 out of 10 people in the scoropio there and then. Other 2 were critical in the hospital as per the papers.

I have read about this accident, and let me tell you the fact that this stretch of road where the accident happened, is not at all lit.Leave aside being poorly lit, this stretch has no lights on it. I know it for the fact because I drove through this stretch on 19th june early morning and 20th june late night as I drove to Annavaram from hyd. If only the roads had street lights on, this would not have happened. I had to literally strain my eyes to see the road and was driving slow.
Offcourse,the driver of the scorpio has to take the blame for driving fast and rash, but this does not absolve government of it's responsibilities.

[MX6]

Originally Posted by ASHISHPALLOD

Right or wrong, the decision will save the lives.

Sorry AP saab. This I don't agree. This decision doesn't save lives at all. Just that people who had free lanes in the night will now start speeding in day time to make up for lost time. Instead of enforcing strict adherance to speed limits, they are just banning high speed vehicles in the night alone. That doesn't help. Hope they don't stop aircrafts from taking off from Hyderabad airport between 12 and 5 am because it touches close to 200 kph on the runway. That is a high speed vehicle briefly hitting such speeds on road. I might sound crazy. But not as crazy as the AP govt in this case