anita

Honking drivers to face music

CHENNAI: A driver of a Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) bus in K K Nagar was suspended on Tuesday evening for using an air horn in the vehicle. The driver was suspended for three days since he had on his own installed the high-pitched horn, which is prohibited under the Motor Vehicles Act.

Although MTC buses have electrical horns, many drivers feel they are not loud enough to help them wend their way through the congested city streets. Despite MTC having issued circulars cautioning drivers not to use any horn except the one installed in the vehicle, several drivers buy air horns that cost about Rs 250 and use them.

"The horns fitted in the bus are only as loud as the horns in two-wheelers. With the increasing vehicle population and traffic congestion, mainly during peak hours, we find it difficult to drive and, hence, we need loud horns,'' said an MTC driver in Broadway. However, MTC officials maintained that the sound generated by the horns fitted in buses was adequate and that drivers were not authorised to get another horn fitted.

MTC drivers are not the only ones violating the air horn regulation. Road safety activists have been insisting that traffic police should take strict action against all vehicle users who use high-pitched or multiple-tone air horns, or musical horns, which could frighten road users and lead to accidents.

Additional commissioner (traffic) Md Shakeel Akthar told The Times of India that traffic police personnel were already given adequate instruction regarding the use of horns. "About 900 vehicle users have been booked so far this year for using prohibited horns in vehicles, compared to 1,200 cases booked during January-December last year,'' he said.

However, sellers of vehicle spares in the city said that the sale of high-volume, musical and multiple-tone horns were on the rise. According to them, about 50 diffferent horns for two-wheelers and four-wheelers were available in the market, ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 1,800.

"I sell at least three high-volume and musical horns a week. While some vehicle users say that the horns should be more loud and different to enable them to move easily through traffic, many people simply fancy replacing their vehicle horns,'' said Nandagopal, a vehicle spares seller in Perambur.

Transport officials initiated a special drive for a few days last year when they intercepted vehicles using prohibited horns and removed them from the vehicles on-the-spot. But that drive did not continue. "We have plans to launch a similar drive soon,'' a senior transport official said.

13 May 2009, TNN