NASHIK: Driving on the wrong side of the road is a big cause of accidents, but police action against errant drivers appears to be not quite sufficient, as it seems not to make any impact on city drivers.Though the police claimed to have upped action against wrong side driving in 2018 compared to the previous year, the menace of wrong side driving is evident everywhere.Most city roads or highways are bifurcated by dividers for two-way traffic. And driving on the wrong side is rampant on all these roads. Even though gaps in the road dividers were sealed to discourage people from driving on the wrong side, the practice continues.An officer in city traffic police said, “A motorist is taken by surprise when he sees a motorist coming straight towards him in the lane in which he is driving. It takes most people used to more disciplined driving a while to adjust to this menace. Such driving may not always cause accidents that are fatal, but there is still a serious problem.”In 2017, 1,683 motorists were challaned for wrong side driving in the city. Last year, intensified police action saw 3,865 motorists booked for this offence, a 129 per cent rise from the previous year.Traffic police got Rs 7.73 lakh by slapping fines on errant motorists last year.Laxmikant Patil, DCP (Traffic and Zone 1) said, “Wrong side driving has become a serious problem. While we upped action against such motorists last year, we have intensified it even more this year. Motorists must understand that taking the short-cut is such a huge obstruction to smooth traffic flow and could cause accidents.”Police said that the highways and most of the city roads have dividers on them. While it is expected that motorists take the right lane and take a U-turn if they have to go to the other side of the road, they generally use short cuts and drive on the wrong side till a junction before changing the lane.This problem is also seen on the highways in rural areas of the district, where motorists freely drive on the wrong side. The rural police said that they were continuously taking action against such violators.In Primpri Chinchwad and Pune, police have begun to book people found driving on the wrong side under Section 279 (rash driving) of the Indian Penal Code. This comes with a fine of Rs1,000 or six months in jail or both. Traffic police in these areas felt the need to clamp down on such indiscipline to make roads safer.

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