Hazardous parking along highways at night poses a threat to motorists in Kozhikode

Highway police and road safety squads fail to take prompt action, leading to truck drivers misusing narrow spaces along highways as parking spots, endangering safety of other motorists. Lack of street lights and parking lights, combined with incomplete highway widening work, increase risk of collisions. Local residents' associations call for regular patrols and more street lights. Lorry Operators Association seeks convenient halting points with comfort station facilities.

With no prompt action on the part of the highway police and road safety squads, some truck drivers, including inter-State operators, are misusing the narrow space along national and State highways as their parking spots at night endangering the safety of other motorists. Parking lights and reflectors are rarely used in such vehicles that even cover the reflective road markings on the edges.

The Koyilandy-Mahe stretch of the Kozhikode-Kannur national highway now has several such hazardous parking points, where street lights are also not functional. Chances are high for light motor vehicles to ram such illegally parked vehicles in poorly-lit areas. The risk has increased with the yet-to-be completed national highway widening work.

“It is sad that the police conduct checks only during accidents. There should be regular patrol on the highway to remove such dangerously parked heavy vehicles. Number of street lights should also be increased for motorists’ safety,” says Dinesh Babu, functionary of a local residents’ association at Payyoli. He says night time parking without using parking lights should be taken as a serious offence.

Mushrooming of wayside eateries along the highways adds to the issue. Many drivers are converting the narrow space near such eateries as halting points without adopting proper safety measures. In isolated cases, drivers even leave the vehicles and take rest in other places.

Complaints are also on the rise against abandoning vehicles with mechanical complaints on the road for many days. No warning reflectors are usually attached to such vehicles to avoid collision. The conventional practice of placing branches of trees as an indication of breakdown is still continuing in many locations which is hardly detectable for night travellers.

Meanwhile, functionaries of the Lorry Operators Association say the lack of spacious parking points for heavy vehicles is continuing to be a huge headache for inter-State and inter-district operators.

According to them, wayside parking can be avoided only by creating convenient halting points with comfort station facilities along national and State highways.