more-in Though the police claim to have a flawless closed-circuit television camera (CCTV) network with real-time monitoring system on the national and State highways, those involved in hit-and-run incidents have been slipping through the net with ease. The police have not been able to make a breakthrough in two recent cases though CCTV footage has been collected from various locations. The issue assumes significance in the wake of the death of a man from Kozhikode city on the road without getting medical aid. In another case, a woman, who was hit by an unknown vehicle while she was riding a two-wheeler, is still undergoing treatment at a city hospital. Both the incidents occurred on a highway stretch covered by CCTV cameras. Activists of the Road Accident Action Forum (RAAF) said that lack of periodic maintenance of cameras and frequent transfer of officials in charge of the remote surveillance systems had disrupted the road monitoring mechanism across the State. They said that the national highways and State highways in northern Kerala were the worst-hit as technical hitches were yet to be rectified. “Every year, the Kerala Road Safety Authority gets huge funds from the government, but it is hardly invested for streamlining the remote surveillance systems and road safety measures,” says K.M. Abdu, State president, RAAF. The negligence continued at a time when the police and the Motor Vehicle departments complained about the limited human resource. It had also failed to identify the camera surveillance system as a viable alternative that could help improve their work. Meanwhile, leaders of the Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu Road Action Committee alleged that most city roads and highways were in a poor shape, prompting drivers to flout traffic rules. It was the frequent hit-and-run cases and freak accidents on the Mananchira-Vellimadukunnu road that forced them to seek road widening on the stretch, they said. M.P. Vasudevan, general secretary of the action committee, said there was no effective mechanism in place to prevent overspeeding by vehicles and to detect those which escaped from the accident spot. “As speed detection cameras are useless now, rogue elements among drivers are using it to the hilt,” he said. A senior police officer attached to the traffic wing admitted that the annual maintenance contract of some of the CCTV cameras in the city was yet to be renewed. The police control room was working on it and most of the faulty cameras had already been replaced, he said.

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