Bhayandar: The traffic control wing of the Thane (rural) police has initiated a renewed action to instil road discipline and are now catching people wearing earphones while driving.
The first to face the music were auto drivers in the twin-city. In a special drive, traffic police caught 250 auto drivers found to be talking on the phone or listening to the music, using headphones, while driving across the twin-city.
To give time for the word to spread among citizens about not to use phones while driving, onduty traffic cops did not penalise violators, instead confiscated the earphones of the erring drivers and burnt the seizures at the nearby junctions.
The action followed after repeated complaints to the traffic department against auto drivers, who use earphones to talk or listen to the music on their phones, while transporting passengers.
“This often led to altercations and fights, as the autos head to wrong directions without realising what the passengers were trying to tell them. The traffic poilce drive will continue,” said senior inspector (traffic) Anil Pawar.
“As the ear remained plugged, passengers at times, were compelled to physically poke the driver for asking him to stop the auto,” said K Shabbir, a regular auto passenger from Mira Road, while thanking traffic cops for the action.
