National 4 (Spotlight Weekly)

“Most Accidents Involve The Motorcycles”

— Surendra Bahadur Pal

SURENDRA BAHADUR PAL, senior superintendent of police (SSP), is leading the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office. Pal spoke to KESHAB POUDEL on various issues related to traffic congestion and other problems. Excerpts:

How do you view the state of traffic accidents in the valley?

There are more accidental problems due to motorcycles. Our studies have shown that motorcyclists are frequent violators of the traffic rule resulting in the road accidents. Since motorcycles are light vehicles, they do not quite follow the rules and regulations. If you walk around the city, you can see the anarchy of motorcyclists in the street. They do not follow lane rule and overtake the vehicles wherever they find it convenient. Thus, there is high probability of accidents. Out of total accidents, the motorcycle covers 80 percent. The accident occurs mostly in the night-time. More than 65 percent motorbike accidents have occurred during the night. Although there are traffic rushes at daytime, the accidents occur at night when the traffic volume in the streets is very nominal.

Is there a problem of drunken driving?

Our studies have shown that over 90 percent accidents have occurred thanks to the over consumption of alcohol by drivers. When motorcyclists consume excess alcohol, he/she cannot control the motorbikes in terms of speed and cannot judge the road. Besides, many motorcyclists always ride in excessive speed. Motorcyclists do not follow the speed rule. Majority of victims of the accidents are below the age of 25 and they are mostly boys. Although there are a considerable number of women motorcyclists, the involvement of girls in accident is less than one percent. If you see the record, you can find that motorcyclists are causing almost ninety percent of accidents. They hit the pedestrians, vehicles and trucks. Along with causing severe injury for themselves, motorcyclists are also causing the injury to others. At night, motorcyclists hit wall or truck or pole before injuring himself. At the daytime, the motorcyclists often hit pedestrians.

Has the mandatory provision for the use of helmets helped in checking the fatal casualty?

The decision to enforce the mandatory use of helmets for riders and pillion riders of motorcycles has drastically reduced the level of fatal casualty. Provided someone uses the helmet properly, we find that 98 percent can avoid fatality. We have not seen any one dying in accident when he/she uses helmet properly. There were some cases of fatality when the trucks and buses hit the motorcyclists, though.

What about the accidents in the highways?

In terai, the ratio of accidents is very low but the accidents in the mountains are still higher since the mountain roads have many turnings and steep slopes. There are many bends and low visibility. We have found that truck accidents are more frequent than the bus accidents. Although we just cover the highway area up to Gajuri, we find many more incidents of truck accidents than those of buses. Mostly such trucks are overloaded. We don’t have weighing machines so we cannot check the loads of trucks.

What new programs is the VTPO doing to manage traffic?

We have developed many pockets mobilizing the local communities. One of the major reasons of accidents is that there is a lack of traffic knowledge. We can prevent accidents through generating awareness among the masses. We have already initiated a number of programs to generate awareness among the people. However, I must add that we have been unable to launch programs as effectively as we had envisaged.

Why aren’t your programs effective, then?

One of the reasons behind our failures is that we cannot organize programs due to lack of manpower since most of the traffic police are always busy managing the traffic thanks to the frequent political agitations. Our boys and girls are busy diverting vehicles from one end to another. It consumes almost 50 percent of our capacity. Most of the political movement is confined to the city so we are always uncertain about how to manage the road. Once the roadblock is imposed for half an hour in any particular area, it will disturb the whole city traffic for hours. You can see traffic jams everywhere. As long as we don’t have alternative roads, it will be virtually impossible to manage the traffic. Most of the political parties organize the programs in the main roads so we cannot find a lot of time. More than 45 percent of the vehicles are in the valley. There are more than 150,000 motorcycles in the valley and everyday 70 to 100 new motorbikes are registered here.

What do you suggest to control traffic?

My argument is that we need to impose the restriction on the import of motorbikes. If we cannot restrict the number of motorbikes, it will be impossible to manage the traffic in the valley. Even the numbers of big vehicles have increased by many folds. The government has to take initiatives for the mass transport discouraging the ownership of private vehicles. If there are necessities, taxes for the individual car owners must be increased. If you look at other cities where motorcycles are in large number, you will find that the traffic is unmanageable there. If you see the cases of cities in Asia like Vietnam, India and Bangladesh, the motorcycles are creating more problems resulting in frequent accidents. In some countries, the taxes are so high that it is impossible to ride motorbikes. Since the motorbikes enjoy all kinds of freedom in the streets, they need to pay more money. Motorbikes also disturb the traffic so they must pay for that. We must also promote the mass transport. Singapore has a good example on how to manage the vehicles. There is a need to increase the parking charges.

Since our constitution cannot ban the imports of vehicles, what alternatives do you suggest?

I agree that the state cannot ban the imports of vehicles but the state can provide the effective mass transportation so that people do not have to go for private vehicles. In almost all capital cities around the world, they do have certain criteria. If we promote the mass transport in all parts of the cities, people automatically will cease buying bikes and vehicles. Whey would one ride unsafe transport if one can ride safer mode of vehicles. We must concentrate our efforts to upgrade the mass transport system in the valley. A small valley like ours needs certain policies and programs. But here, everyone can buy motorbikes since banks are giving out loans without any guarantee.

How do you see the road safety side?

On the part of road safety, we need to have more infrastructures and awareness. If we cannot generate awareness among our citizens, we cannot prevent the accident injuries. Our part is just to manage. So far as generating awareness is concerned, it is up to the media and civil society as a whole. They need to play effective role. We cannot prevent injury just by executing the law. The government cannot do it alone. We have to introduce traffic in a curriculum at school and college levels. You cannot control the accidents by organizing monthly and annul traffic campaign. The short-term actions will not be effective. We have to show our new generation how to maintain the road discipline. During the course of socialization, children can learn the manners of road traffic. At school level, we have found very negligible interest. Private boarding schools are supporting us in regular basis when we organize the traffic weeks but it is not adequate.

How many people violate the rules every day?

I can’t give you an exact number but monthly we fine (the violators) around Rs.150, 000 to Rs. 200,000. We deposit this amount as revenue. Traffic police can fine between Rs. 50 to Rs 200. The new traffic mobile court can fine up to Rs.1000 to 5,000 to those who violate repeatedly. The mobile court has been set up under the Transport Management Act. The mobile court is convened at the Valley Traffic Police Office.