With the Motor Vehicles department (MVD) bracing to begin penalising traffic-rule offenders with the help of a network of 726 force-multiplying artificial intelligence-enabled (AI) CCTV cameras that span the State from Monday, motorists and a section of enforcement officials have demanded equal treatment of offenders, be it VIP vehicles or KSRTC buses, in order to bring down road accidents.
A senior MVD official said that strict action must be taken, from the outset, against owners of vehicles without legible number plates or those having fake/misleading ones, violators of lane discipline and overloaded goods carriers, considering that such violations were becoming common. “The government must also clarify whether vehicles that ferry VIPs, government vehicles and KSRTC buses will be held liable as other motorists for exceeding speed limits and other offences,” the official said.
A finality is also needed on whether the driver/vehicle owner who is issued e-challan after being detected by AI camera for rule violation will be given an opportunity to be heard if need arose. They can explain their point of view before the RTO concerned in case of the present e-challan system. Moreover, there are grey areas such as whether penalty will be imposed for the same offence detected by multiple cameras on a corridor and whether holding mobile phone in hand will be considered as use of a hand-held device while driving, he added.
Responding to concerns among motorists about boards mentioning the speed limit for different stretches missing on most road corridors in Kerala, T. Elangovan, who served as the executive director of the Kerala Road Safety Authority and director of NATPAC, said it was the duty of road-owning agencies to install such boards which mention the speed limit. “The State government can designate the type of emergency and other vehicles that have beacon and siren and could be exempted from the purview of AI cameras in aspects such as speed limit,” he said.
Referring to reports of the number of accidents showing a decline after the AI cameras were installed, head of the Automobile Engineering department of the SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, Kochi, Manoj Kumar B. spoke of how this aspect was overshadowed by allegations over their procurement. “There is dire need to bring down the number of accident fatalities in Kerala from the average of over 4,000 deaths per year and 10 times the number of people suffering permanent disability. This can be done if rule enforcement is tightened with the help of these cameras,” he said.
The government must also clamp down on encroachments and illegal/haphazard parking that often cause accidents. The ‘VIP culture’ could, however, play spoilsport with enforcement if government vehicles are exempted. Adherence to rules must begin from the top, he added.
