Blinking lights make night driving a horror

If Kolkata traffic is chaotic at the best of times, every road in the city especially the intersections turns into a death trap at night. With traffic signals blinking away merrily after 10 pm, it's up to the drivers to look carefully for approaching vehicles. In most cases, though, it turns out to be an exercise in who steps on the gas pedal faster and speeds away.
TOI did the rounds of several city hotspots at night to see how far Kolkatans follow the rulebook after 10 pm.It was an eye-opener. A major accident is waiting to happen at most important crossings.
Take the trisection of Ballygunge Circular Road, Elgin Road and Gurusaday Road. Here, it's a mad scramble among drivers. "It's a miracle that accidents don't happen here every night. With signals constantly blinking, drivers don't bother to check whether the adjoining roads are free or not," said Sundar Yadav, the owner of a paan shop near the crossing.
Worse still is the Chitpore flyover, where accidents are a regular affair. The road from Chitpore takes an almost 90-degree turn towards the flyover.
"Right from day one, the flyover has been a threat to life," said Ram Avtar, a local resident. A broken divider bears testimony to the threat that speeding cars pose during the night.
It's a similar case at Gariahat flyover. "After 10 pm, there is no stopping cars or buses. No one waits to see whether another vehicle is coming or not," said a hawker, Santosh Yadav.
Drivers also complain of streetlights not working. On the night of August 6, the entire stretch from Ballygunge Phanri to Park Circus was dark. "This is almost a regular occurrence. We have complained to KMC several times," said a traffic constable on duty at Ballygunge.