High use of pressure horns goes unchecked in Amritsar

Not caring two hoots about traffic rules, more and more people here are getting the company-fitted horns in cars replaced by the pressure horns with impunity, causing nuisance to other commuters. Even sirens of police vehicles are easily available in the market.

The intended purpose of car horns to alert other drivers to give way to avoid a collision has taken a backseat. More users are replacing the horns in their cars with the hooters being used in police vehicles to scare other vehicle drivers to give way.

Sheetal Seth, an employee with a private concern, says usage of car horns are for safety, but most drivers are using these days to express their annoyance. This deviation is turning car horns into a form of noise pollution instead of its intended purpose of providing safety. Otherwise horns are a simple, utilitarian tool that despite causing some annoyance are a good tool to avoid a collision,” she said.

Despite the ban on the use of pressure horns,people do not desist from installing these in their vehicles. A visit to a few automobile spare parts shops showed that high-intensity hooters and those specifically found in police vehicles were being sold openly in the market. These hooters are available in the range of Rs 300 to Rs 600 per piece.

In noise-polluted roads of Amritsar, the norm for the sound emitted by an automobile horn (not exceeding 90 decibels) goes for a toss. Pressure horns can take the noise level to as high as 140 decibels, said officials of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB).

Police officials say fitting a pressure horn violates the motor vehicle rules which prohibits vehicular modifications that cause inconvenience to road users. The state government has banned all types of pressure horns under the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, but there is no check on the use of the same.

The Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1989, states that “no vehicle shall be fitted with any multi-toned horn giving a succession of different notes or with any other sound-producing device giving an unduly harsh, shrill, loud or alarming noise”.

Compliance of all these norms remains a far cry while violators do not bother to even hold back from using pressure horns close to hospitals, schools and other silence zones. Strangely, the violations go unchecked.

Amritsar