Over a dozen deaths in separate traffic accidents in the city in the past week have brought the focus back on helmet-less two-wheeler riders and the menace of drink driving.
In the run-up to the New Year, police have decided to target two-wheeler drivers without helmets in lanes and bylanes leading to main thoroughfares. The plan is also to set up checks to detect drink driving in unusual locations and intensify the surveillance.
Officers of traffic guards have been instructed to conduct surprise checks on roads leading to key arteries throughout the day and increase the number of checkpoints at night.
Places in the city's east, like stretches along EM Bypass, and on the southern fringes, like the lanes opening into thoroughfares like Diamond Harbor Road and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Road will be under scanner.
Why the lanes and smaller roads?
While analysing the recent fatalities because of road accidents, officers have found a case where a 22-year-old youth, Bishal Sardar, died falling off his two-wheeler after being accidentally hit by the right front door of a car which opened suddenly.
The accident occurred on Kalikapur Main Road that leads to a residential pocket off EM Bypass around 9.05pm on Tuesday.
Bishal, who did not have a helmet on him, was rushed to MR Bangur Hospital where he succumbed to his head injuries.
Between Tuesday night and Wednesday, five lives were lost to four road accidents.
"The compliance in terms of wearing helmets on some of the key thoroughfares in the city is close to 90 per cent. But it's not the same in case of smaller roads, lanes and bylanes leading to these thoroughfares," said a senior police officer.
The common excuse, the police on the ground said, "we would travel a short distance".
"Kalikapur Main Road off EM Bypass or SN Roy Road in Behala, MG Road in Thakurpukur and Suresh Banerjee Road in Beleghata are, for instance, some of the smaller roads where the compliance is low. We want to focus on such roads for intense surveillance," the senior officer said.
Within hours of the accident in Kalikapur on Tuesday night, 50-year-old Dipayan Mondal, a resident of Bamanghata, was declared dead at a state-run hospital after he rammed into a lampost on Basanti Highway, off EM Bypass, around 11.05pm.
The police said Mondal was not wearing a helmet either.
Apart from helmet-less riders, officers across traffic guards in the city and the fringes have been asked to increase the number of checkpoints during the night till the early hours of the next day.
The officers have been asked to identify new spots every day so the motorists are caught unawares.
At the end of the drive, those on duty at these checkposts have been asked to draw up a report and send it to the police headquarters in Lalbazar every day.