Cops yet to exorcise Marine Drive speed devils

“Even though speeding incidents on the stretch have reduced,it has not stopped completely,” said Anil Kumbhare,deputy commissioner of police (zone II).

Following the alleged drink driving accident on September 1 last year where 30-year-old Sushil Kothari,driving a Honda Accord had allegedly knocked down an Activa Scooter killing the pillion rider and injuring the rider,the zone I and II police officials had stepped up the bandobast and deployed additional force along Marine Drive to nab speedsters and prevent such accidents.

Kumbhare said that in the past four months they had already penalised over 500 two-wheeler riders for over speeding at the Marine Drive stretch under the Motor Vehicles Act. “We had started this drive after the drink driving case of Nooriya Haveliwala exactly a year ago and have been consistently nabbing speedsters in the area,” said the officer.

“Speeding has come down,however,due to bandobast duty elsewhere we cannot pay full attention to the stretch,” said Cherring Dorje,deputy commissioner of police (zone I).

“Since that road has many VIP movements and there are no speed breakers,at night vehicles tend to over speed,” said an officer from the Marine Drive police station.

“After Kothari’s accident we have increased the patrolling on the stretch from Nariman point to Walkeshwar and put four more teams to watch the stretch till Ramzaan ends,” said the officer.

However,commuters say that the police teams are only present at the signal at Jazz by the Bay and nowhere else. “There is no checking at any other spot where two wheelers tend to speed and drive rashly,” said Anand Vasani,a businessman from Malabar Hill whose office is at Nariman Point.