Kannur: Officers in disguise use android application to catch buses red handed for plying at 105 km/hour. The buses were found to have tampered with their speed regulators and were immediately subject to cancellation of fitness certificates. The officers had decided to test the new mode of detection after a student died in an accident at Thazhechovva, Kannur.
An officer boarded the bus in plain clothes which was followed by the others in a private vehicle. The application called ‘Speedometer’ downloadable from Play store lets one track the speed of the vehicle one is travelling in. It is also connected to GPS.
The speed of the bus is recorded sitting inside with 99% precision. The six buses, including two KSRTC buses, were steering at 95-100 km/hr when they were brought under check. The check was conducted in the buses running between Kannur and Kozhikode and the buses were followed from Kannur and intercepted at the Thalassery bus stand. It was also found that while the private buses had disabled their speed regulators, the KSRTC buses did not even have them.
The permit of all the six buses were cancelled. The parties have been instructed to reinstall the speed regulators and test run the buses on the grounds before they seek permits again. The check was sanctioned by RTO Mohanan Nambiar and was conducted by MVI Ranjith Mon, E SBijoy along with Sreekumar, Anil Kumar, S D Sreeni, Pradeep Kumar and Prasanth. The department is planning more checks in the coming days.
