Reporters Diary: No 2 sides to it, cops are all on the wrong side

CHENNAI: Police officers don’t promote driving on the wrong side of the road. Any officer in uniform would never encourage such a behaviour. But as far as exception to the rule goes, you’d find a few stationed on the Gandhi-Irvin Bridge in Egmore, especially at night.

It’s not the traffic cops who do wrong-side driving but those in khaki uniforms – policemen, who were recently instructed to check for drunk drivers using new breathalysers. At night, these officers close one side of the road, forcing vehicles to use the same side of the road. Barricades are placed in the middle of the bridge, and motorists are expected to switch lanes without warning.

For instance, when you turn left onto the Gandhi-Irvin bridge from Central Station, be cautious, as there may be incoming traffic. After you reach the middle of the bridge, there are barricades, causing you to enter the opposite lane – straight into the way of oncoming traffic.

There are no warning signs posted anywhere. So, drivers on either side have no idea about the vehicles heading towards them from the opposite side. This creates a dangerous situation that occurs every night on the Gandhi-Irvin Bridge, and most likely in other parts of the city.

The reason for this dangerous situation is that these cops find it easier to check vehicles if the latter plies on the same side through one bottleneck. Curiously, traffic police issue fines for driving on the wrong side of the road during the day, while law enforcement officials promote it at night. Oh...what a system!