While the sight of a speed camera at Miramar seems to be an overnight development, it actually has been a long time coming. The camera has been installed a hundred metres or less before the Miramar circle and traffic going towards the circle and beyond are tracked by a speed gun. A digital board gives you a warning if you’re travelling faster than the notified limit of 40 kilometers per hour (kmph). If the motorist doesn’t heed the warning, an image will be shot by a second camera, which will be sent to the police who will then issue a challan to the offending motorist. Around 1500 offenders were identified and ‘pulled up’ in the first day of operations itself. That number will gradually reduce once people get a little more aware of the advantages of speed limits.
The decision to install the cameras has a lot of benefits and positive consequences. For one, there will eventually be proper speeds maintained on this busy Panaji-Miramar road. Two, if this experiment works out, we will see speed traps such as these come up at various points across Goa, especially places like the bridges and sections of the highways and other roads that pass through populated areas. The main reason for this is to reduce unwarranted speed demons, who endanger the lives of the people around them – motorists as well as pedestrians – and their own lives too. Rash and negligent driving has led to a lot of accidents across Goa, and worse still, a lot of fatalities. This move will hopefully start to discourage people from speeding and nip potential accidents in the bud.
For a long time now, the authorities have been citing lack of police personnel as a reason for the poor state of policing in Goa, especially with regard to traffic-related offences. What these speed cameras do is negate the need for police officers to be present across Goa. A network of cameras work efficiently, there is documented proof and, better still, there is practically no chance of bribes being given.
A few things need to be done parallel to the installation of more speed traps across Goa. The government needs to display regular signs on roads, notifying people of the legal speed limit and warn them of the consequences of violating these rules. If the government can go the way of Digital India and create an online payment process for fines, it will bring added benefits. Any objections can be logged by the alleged violators and can be addressed in court.
For Goa on the whole, an experiment such as this shows that the government is serious about tackling the rash and negligent driving that has now become commonplace on Goan roads.
