Beware of the killer cabs

After being labelled as the second-most rash vehicle on the road after state buses, Wednesday''s road accident proved once again that cabs are indeed one of the top violators of traffic regulations in the city.
Overloading of cabs, in terms of taking more-than-capacity passengers, is rampant here, despite a government circular restricting the number to five.Incidentally, the cab which collided with a truck at Taratala on December 12 was carrying as many as 10 passengers, eight of whom died.
According to the Kolkata traffic police, at least 35 per cent of the accidents involving cabs are due to overloading. "If there are 10 passengers instead of five, the taxi driver can''t drive properly and loses control," said deputy commissioner, traffic (II), SK Mitra.
Though the traffic police is supposed to conduct drives to book overloaded cabs and charge a fine of Rs 3,000, neither are done on a regular basis. Hardly 100 cases have been registered in 2004 for taking excess passengers, whereas the actual figures could go up to a few thousand cases. Statistics also show that every year 60 per cent of autorickshaw accidents take place due to overloading and the resultant toppling of the vehicle.
But it''s a case of passing the buck between the cops and taxi associations. While the police say that the cabbies are to be blamed for taking extra passengers, taxi associations claim that the cops are equally at fault. "Cops, who are posted at every traffic signal, can nab the defaulting cabbies. But they don''t because of their own vested interests," said Bimal Guha, general secretary, Bengal Taxi Association.