Shrill horns are back!

Mangaluru: A month after the road safety week was observed, when the traffic police and the transport department had exercised full control over the use of shrill horns they are back with a vengeance.

Just when the motorists were heaving a sigh and the anti-sound pollution activists were rejoicing over their victory over the shrill horns, the private bus lobby refitted their vehicles with shrill horns, what is more, disturbing is that they have fitted louder horns, which is even more menacing. “Old horns have been confiscated by the transport officers, we do not get the horn with the same intensity, so we have fitted better ones by paying a fortune,” said Rafiq Ahmed, who has taken a private bus on lease from the owner. Over 250 vehicles have gone in for new and louder horns, he added.

According to the engineers in the Transport authorities, the buses here have horns with 100 decibels, and every bus has two such horns, which is just 25 percent less than the ones fitted on the metro trains. The drivers of the buses in Mangaluru use them as weapons against other road users. They keep the horn lever depressed in crowded places and scare people away from the eerie and loud horns.

Why do you need such big horns? When asked one of the drivers Shabbeer (name changed on request) on a city route told that “We are hard pressed for time, each schedule is separated by only 45 seconds on the same route for most part of the day. A single two wheeler going in front of us in a slow pace can upset our timing, a delay of just 30 seconds can cause a road rage between two buses going in the same direction” Shabbeer told. Which is why we need louder horns to chase away all the other motorists from our path, though we feel sorry for them there is nothing we can do is what other drivers say.

Rights activist Hanumanth Kamath says whatever their time constraints they still have to operate within the lawful operational norms, they cannot drive the buses rashly or blare shrill horns at other road users.

However the police and the transport officials assert that there was nothing to stop them to continue their campaign against the shrill horns. Let them not be under the impression that we carry out drives against shrill horns only during the road safety week once in a year. Road users are free to note down the numbers of the vehicles with shrill horns, not necessarily the private buses, but any vehicle for that matter, and inform police control room (dial 100) we will take action Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic) tell the traffic police sources.