A road safety session taught two-wheeler riders why they should not ride right next to buses and trucks and should avoid overtaking them from close as these vehicles offer limited visibility to their drivers.
The two-wheeler riders were then made to sit in the driver’s seat and asked to see through the rear-view mirrors inside and outside the vehicle, as well as through the front windshield, and spot the two-wheelers.
The sessions are being organised by officers of the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate
At the workshops in Salt Lake and on VIP Road on Friday, police personnel demonstrated the dangers by placing marking tapes as well as motorcycles, bicycles and scooters around a couple of buses.
“We placed the tapes as well as vehicles directly in front of a bus, just behind it and on either side below the windows of the driver’s and the helper’s seats. We then asked those who ride two-wheelers to sit in the driver’s seat and try to spot the motorcycles, bicycles and the scooters. None of them could,” said an officer.
Brotin Ghoshal, from Teghoria, told the police that on several occasions he had observed that buses move slowly to pick up passengers and then suddenly accelerate.
Trucks, too, accelerate erratically. “I have seen this several times — a heavy vehicle that has been moving slowly suddenly picks up speed. This makes it dangerous to overtake them,” said Ghoshal.
Traffic police officers explained that one of the main reasons for this was that the driver of the larger vehicle was not aware that a two-wheeler was behind or beside his vehicle.
“Before attempting to overtake any vehicle, particularly larger ones, one should warn the other driver. Use the horn and flash the headlight and the indicator and make the driver in front realise which direction you are headed.
It is important to wait for the bigger vehicle to move aside before attempting to overtake it. Large and heavy vehicles have several blind spots around them,” a senior officer of the airport traffic guard said.
Blind spots are those areas on the road that a driver cannot see from his seat while looking forward or through the rear-view or side mirrors.
Those present at the road safety sessions were also shown footage of road accidents captured by CCTV cameras installed along VIP Road and in Salt Lake.
Gaurav Sharma, the Bidhannagar police commissioner, told Metro on Friday that these workshops and campaigns would continue.
“Awareness is the key here. Since two-wheelers require very little road space, some riders think they can overtake even through a very narrow gap between vehicles. That’s a very dangerous mindset,” said Sharma.
The safety campaign has been launched to sensitise those who use two-wheelers, especially guardians who use them to drop their children to school.
A Class VII student at The Newtown School, Hiya Roy, who was riding pillion on her mother’s scooter, was flung off the vehicle when her mother lost control of the two-wheeler while trying to overtake a dump truck near the Kaikhali intersection on VIP Road. The child was crushed under the wheels of the heavy vehicle.
The mother lost control of the scooter after its handle got snagged in the truck’s rear fender
This newspaper reported on Thursday about children falling victim to road accidents across the city, often because of carelessness by others or guardians who did not follow traffic rules.
