In an effort to check the increasing number of road accidents, an intensive enforcement drive is being carried out in Kozhikode district against the misuse of high-beam lights and decorative lights in private and taxi vehicles.
Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) officials will conduct the drive using lux meters covering major stretches of national and state highways.
Members of the MVD enforcement squad said misuse of illegally installed high-beam lights contributed to road accidents at night. He said a section of drivers, mainly taxi cab operators, are unaware of the sensible use of high-beam headlights.
“The practice of lowering the high-beam headlights to facilitate vehicles from the opposite direction is hardly a habit for many drivers. Some ignorant people are also using bright lights as a measure to alert vehicles from the opposite direction for wrong reasons,” said a regional transport official now part of a statewide inspection. They reported that some were also found using highly disturbing bright lights to harass fellow motorists and dominate the road.
Citing official records, members of the MVD enforcement squad said that despite awareness campaigns and legal actions, the highest number of such violations were frequently reported in Kozhikode district. Since 2019, we have been conducting aggressive investigations, and Kozhikode has been found to be the leader in the number of cases, he said.
In 2019, the total number of cases registered during the special drive against misuse of high-beam lights in Kozhikode district stood at 217. The following year also 225 cases were registered in the district. Last year, around 250 vehicle owners were apprehended for the offense in two separate special drives. According to MVD sources, an average of 1,000 such violations are reported in the state every year.
Officials of the Road Accident Action Forum claimed that 33 per cent of the night accidents were directly related to the misuse of high-beam lights. He also pointed out that high-end luxury vehicles were largely involved in such violations which could be easily tracked using the existing checking facilities.
Meanwhile, MVD’s action plan has provoked a section of tourist bus operators in the district. An office-bearer of the Tourist Bus Operators Association said that the action against the installation of fancy lights did not cause any inconvenience to the motorists, which would spoil the attractiveness of Anand Yatras. He also pointed out that sluggish presence of tourist buses will lead to no bookings and double their losses in the industry.