Over 100 bikes seized in a day for violation of norms
The Visakhspatanam city police special team comprising men and officers from the traffic, law and order wings cracked the whip on errant bikers on Saturday and seized more than 100 high-end bikes and scooters and took into custody an equal number of drivers on charges of foulting various road safety norms.
The drive was conducted on the stretch between between Naval Coast Battery and Bheemunipatnam, and the police team took into custody who were indulging in speed racing, drag racing, motorbike stunts and speeding over the prescribed limit.
According to the police, all the bikers taken into custody were in age group of 16 to 30 years and most of them were either school or college dropouts. Two of them also had criminal cases pending against them including a murder against a biker, an intermediate dropout.
“We did not took them for speeding or racing only. Many have altered the company made silencers and put up designer number plates in voilation of the prescribed norms. Many drivers were caught driving without licences,” said DCP (Law and Order) K. Fakkeerappa.
During the drive, many minor were found driving vehicles. “We are verifying their age and other details. We’ll let them go after a counselling session with their parents . We will levy fines too,” said Mr. Fakkeerappa.
The police are also building a database which would help identify repeat offenders.
Database for repeat offenders
“The database will be shared with other cities too. In case of a repeat offence, we will register cases under the relevant IPC sections related to dangerous driving and other sections under the MV Act,” said the DCP.
Most of the bikers who indulge in racing are members of a few local social media sites where they post the time and place of racing. “We will take action against all the admin members of such sites,” said Dr. Fakkeerappa.
For the police, nabbing the speedsters was not an easy task. A 120-member team from traffic, law and order wings positioned themselves in batches on the stretch from Bheemunipatnam to Naval Coast Battery and stoppers were used to apprehend the erring bikers.
“Stoppers were used on the escape routes. Despite the arrangements, a few bikers tried to dodge us to whom we gave a chase. Keeping in mind that they did not get injured, we played it safe. A few on spotting us stopped the bikes at the stoppers and ran away,” said ACP (Traffic) Kinjarapu Prabhakar.
‘Eagle eye’ app
Meanwhile, the city police is also developing an app ‘Eagle eye’ for citizen-based reportage on traffic violations. The app is ready and under test run under the supervision of Traffic Department. The police said that it would be extended to the people shortly.
“People can click or make videos of traffic violations and upload it on the police website, facebook page or twitter handle which will be notified before the launch date of the app,” the DCP said. The police are also approaching the showrooms to install GPS on the bikes as an add-on faeature to the bike cost so that the bikes can be traced in case of theft. The vehicles can also be monitored if the driver is resorting to overspeeding or racing, he added.
