While walking or driving through the City’s thoroughfares, it wouldn’t take long to nail the biggest culprit — shrill and defective vehicular horns. Honk-happy drivers just let themselves go as their horns sing, hoot, screech, scream, pierce and wail, till the City’s rhythm divine is rendered raucous.
Metrolife interacted with the traffic police, officials of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, horn manufacturers and people in general to understand why defective horns continue to be a rage in the City.
A senior officer with the noise pollution wing of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board points out, “Shrill horns cause a deafening effect and can even destabilise the mental state of a driver as it leaves one numb or even in a state of shock. The number of shrill horns are increasing by 15 to 20 per cent every year. If the City expands at such a mindless pace, this will go up to 50 per cent every year.”
Even the traffic police say that cases registered against cars with shrill horns have been increasing at a steady pace. According to the statistics available with the traffic police, cases registered against use of shrill horns were 28,333 in 2007. It reduced in 2008 to 26,568 and further dropped to 13,286 in 2009. But there was a sharp rise in 2010 with 32, 417 cases. And this year, it is worst with 31 26,397 cases registered till October 2011. Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Safety) M A Saleem points out that a fine of Rs 100 is slapped on the offenders and their licence is cancelled. “But this doesn’t seem to better the behaviour of people on the roads. It continues to remain brash and uncivilised. We have taken up an aggressive drive to swoop down on these offenders.
About 450 licences of people, caught for various offences, have been cancelled till date,” informs Saleem.
The horn manufacturers make brisk business by selling musical and fancy horns and a bulk of their customers are a whole lot of youngsters who don’t mind paying anything between Rs 350 and Rs 1,500 to get their horns modified. The horns available in the market include wolf horns, high-pitched power horns, ambulance horns, police sirens and pipe horns.
“All these horns exceed the stipulated decibel level. These horns can be hidden in the dash board of vehicles and the driver has the provision to switch to these screechy horns whenever he wants,” explains a horn manufacturer on J C Road. The rates for these loud horns vary between Rs 350 and Rs 900. The musical horns cost Rs 150 and have seven or eight tunes built into them. The shrill horns cost between Rs 450 and Rs 1,600. J C Road, Mission Road, Jayanagar, J P Nagar, Lalbagh Road and Siddaiah Road are just some of the places where such horns are sold.
The State Regional Transport Authority too has stepped in to rein in these aural offenders. The department is contemplating increasing the fine amount. “While only some four-wheelers and two-wheelers stick to horns of the manufacturing company, most others modify them. More than 70 per cent of the two wheelers have defective horns,” says a senior official with the department.
For those at the receiving end of these shrill horns, it’s a harrowing time on the road. Jerish Sebastian P, a banker, confesses that he has modified his horn which he strictly uses only on the highway and never in the City limits. “The smaller horns cannot be heard on the highway and it becomes necessary to fix the louder horns. It doesn’t make sense to use it in the City, with limited space to move around,” reasons Jerish.
But Deepak V is against the whole trend of modified horns. “The young think it’s stylish to use these horns but they don’t understand that they directly contribute to increasing pollution levels. There must be more civilised behaviour on the road,” Deepak sums up.