India is a country where violation of traffic rules has become a daily norm and costs thousands of lives every year. In Goa, Police inspector (PI) Edwin Colaco is trying to make the Goan roads more safer through a unique and a innovative method called ‘Roving eyes’.
How does ‘Roving eyes’ work?
The concept of Roving eyes uses a multifunction electronic device (MFED) to capture the images of traffic violators.
“The MFED has an inbuilt camera. If any vehicle is found to be committing a violation of the provisions of the Moving Vehicle (MV) Act regulations, its image is captured on the device by the traffic police carrying the MFED and the data of violating vehicles in real time is also logged by the device. The data is then stored in the office of the traffic cell. The data of violator vehicles is then segregated according to their respective registration offices and details of their ownership are officially sought from the office of the assistant director of transport.” Said Colaco in a report.
Using this method is said to save precious time and is hailed as an effective way to counter traffic rule violations. Also it helps in dealing with violators without deploying additional force. After the images are captured, a notice under Section 149 of CrPC will be issued to the vehicle owners.
Some of the offences that can be curbed using Roving eyes include:
1) Parking in a no parking area
2) Tinted car windows
3) Fancy number plates
4) Violating a no entry
5) Going in the opposite direction on one way roads
6) Not wearing a helmet or seat belt
7) Riding over the vehicle capacity
8) Talking on the phone while driving or riding
How successful has ‘Roving eyes’ been so far?
Since its implementation in March this year roving eyes has identified 400 traffic rule violators and already penalized about 200 vehicle owners.
“Over 200 owners have been issued notices and summoned to this office. The violator driver is at liberty to contest the images of his vehicle if desired. All challans or MV checking reports issued to each of the violators so far have been compounded and no violator has preferred to contest the challan in the court. Since images captured by the device log the date and time of the violation, there is no escape for the violator,” Colaco revealed in a report.
The system has brought much relief to the traffic department personnel in terms of avoiding confrontation.
“The Roving Eye has proved to be a boon as it completely eliminates the need to engage with the violator driver for booking him for the specified offence. Many times violators when sought to be booked on the spot get into arguments and try to create a scene. This leads to loss of valuable time and unnecessary hassles and commotion,” Colaco explained in a report.
A similar initiative is already underway in the cities of Panjim and Margao. CCTV cameras are used to capture violators in prominent locations of these cities. If proven successful, Roving eyes can certainly be implemented across the state.
