An awareness drive that won traffic cops a few prizes

The City traffic police took part in large numbers in a unique road safety drive, a contest of sorts, organised by the National Road Safety Organisation (NRSO) on Sunday.

Around 50 personnel, including inspectors, ACPs and DCPs rode their private vehicles for 48 km during the awareness drive-cum-competition. The drive titled ‘Defensive Drive - Flashing Stars on Wheels’ was flagged off by  Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B Dayananda.

Each participant had a navigator to help him/her. S Satyapal, president, NRSO, said, “We had five ‘secret’ checkpoints. The participant had to spot and stop at the checkpoints and get the time entered in the time card. Late or early check-in or missing the checkpoints attracted penalty points. They had to follow all safety regulations. It was a first-of-its-kind programme held for the traffic police and everyone enjoyed.”

The participants had to drive to the scheduled destinations by following the directions given in the road book. They covered MG Road, Old Airport Road, Sarjapur Road, Bannerghatta Road, Sarjapur Road Junction, Basavapura, Harapanahalli and Yemalur.
They were classified into three age groups: 30-40 years; 40-50 years; 50-60 years.

Each category had three prizes and the overall winners were given champion prizes.
The overall champions across three categories are: Chandradar S R (Indiranagar traffic inspector); Raja Imam Khasim (Old Airport traffic inspector); M N B R Prasad - DCP (Traffic-East).

Overall champion trophy

Prasad bagged the overall champion trophy for consistent driving and getting zero penalties. He told Deccan Herald, “The theme of the drive is Drive Safe - Happy Family. The event was educative apart from being a fun activity.”

The winners in the 30-40 years category are Chandradar S R, Ajay Kumar (KR Puram traffic inspector) and Victor Simon (Rajajinagar traffic inspector). In the 40-50 years category, the winners are Raja Imam Khasim, Naveen Kumar N (High Grounds traffic inspector) and A V Lakshminarayana (Adugodi traffic inspector). In the 50-60 years category, the winners are M N B R Prasad, Narasimhamurthy (Ulsoor Gate traffic inspector) and Shivamallaiah (Central traffic inspector).