Southern Highway - unfair Police

Monday, 15 June 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Recently I drove to Matara on the Southern Highway. As I was leaving the Matara exit two policemen stopped my vehicle and told me that I had been speeding and gave me a ticket for Rs,. 1,000.

When I asked for proof they said that it was on a camera and that if I wished to challenge their decision I could go to court and defend myself. So no proof was shown. They claimed that I was doing 120 km/h. The suggested speed on this stretch is 100 km/h.

As legal redress was not an option I wanted to explore, I went to the Matara Municipality and paid the fine. There were several others who were similarly fined.

While I agree that motorist should follow the rules, we must be able to differential Galle Road and the Duplication Road from a highway.

A highway is a place where there can be very few accidents as there are two lanes going in one direction and absolutely no interference with the traffic flow from three-wheelers, pedestrians,dogs or cross traffic. When vehicles on the left lane are travelling at approximately 100 km to overtake on the right hand lane which is referred to as the overtake lane one obviously needs to speed up more than 100 km.

In other words, in a multi-lane highway to overtake a vehicle one needs to drive faster than that vehicle on the right lane. In that scenario 120 km is only to be expected when overtaking. If the police examine their cameras it will be apparent that every vehicle that overtakes exceeds this limit.

I think we need to understand the purpose of highways and accept a certain speed from vehicles overtaking. Otherwise a slow vehicle on the left lane can create an endless line of vehicles behind him as drivers would be reluctant to overtake.

R. Pieris