A matter of light and death

Kunal Shrivastava, who works with a Gurugram-based MNC, had a narrow escape on Delhi-Gurugram Expressway last Monday. He was driving when the flashlights of an onrushing car blinded him for a split second. It took him five seconds to regain vision, and in that nowhere moment, he nearly crashed onto the divider.

Using high beam is prohibited in city limits, but due to a lack of awareness and absence of technology to stringently monitor the violation, drivers go scot-free, putting the lives of others at considerable risk. According to Delhi traffic police, in January and February, they had fined 82 drivers for using high beam. The prosecution figure was 427 in 2020, 3,427 in 2019 and 5,710 in year 2018. While 2020 was a washout year for most activities, these numbers show a declining trend and even by those standards, an abysmally low prosecution rate this year.