With many immigrants in the city flocking to suburbs like OMR, Velachery and Perumbakkam, flats are increasingly coming under the scanner of apartment builders in Chennai. Reasons for investment in the apartments in Perumbakkam, Velachery, etc are mainly due to the fact that they have good road connectivity and amenities. When the topic of good road connectivity is taken up, the social awareness campaign regarding helmets is gushing about the city. There are many other social road safety campaigns which are in dire need to be followed by the people in order to avoid accidents. Though the connectivity from suburbs to the city are great through public transportation, there are few deviations and changes which have been made in the roads recently due to the metro rail works and not all the commuters are aware of the same. Also, using bright head lights while driving in the night is a big nuisance to other commuters as the bad roads and high lights tend to cause accidents.
While most of us are aware that using the high beam within city limits is illegal, few of us know that flashing headlights is illegal too. Yes, rapidly flashing one’s headlights, or as the Tamil Nadu Motor Vehicle Rules (TMVR) calls it — dazzling — is against the law and not just an ethical misdemeanour. Section 495 stipulates that the ‘lights are not to be used or manipulated in a manner that causes danger or undue inconvenience to a person by dazzle’. It also mandates the blackening of the centre portion of the light so that oncoming drivers aren’t inconvenienced.
High beams are a provision in our vehicles that help illuminate a longer path of the road so that drivers have more reaction time when travelling at high speeds. Quite obviously, our city streets, even without steep speed bumps, are in no way conducive to high speeds.
People who are affected in this scenario are mostly the cyclists and pedestrians whose path is not seen due to the high beams. Therefore commuters should start thinking rationally and drive safely so as to protect themselves and others on the road.
