Is the horn the culprit? No. It is the user. If the Commissioner of Motor Traffic and the Inspector General Police get down from their sealed air-conditioned vehicles that they travel in and stand beside any bus stop and if their hearing is good they will find out who the culprits are. A horn is [...]

The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Sound pollution, horns, law and police

Much hype created these days on sound pollution caused by vehicle horns
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Is the horn the culprit? No. It is the user.

If the Commissioner of Motor Traffic and the Inspector General Police get down from their sealed air-conditioned vehicles that they travel in and stand beside any bus stop and if their hearing is good they will find out who the culprits are. A horn is used in an emergency to warn others to avoid impending danger. It is not a tool to say I am coming, get out of the way. Most of the misuse of the horn is by drivers of security vehicles escorting those of might in the so called safest country of the globe. This unnecessary use of the horn by escort vehicles should be stopped first before other drivers are prosecuted for horn pollution. Hats off for the ‘Order to Remove VVIP and VIP stickers’. How about removing Red Registration Plates
What is the easier method. Prosecute drivers of vehicles who use horns unnecessarily or check horns of vehicles? Our idle Police have only to monitor the biggest violator – buses on our roads. May be they use the horn to chase away mosquitoes and flies when approaching a bus stop or attract attention of passengers that the monster is approaching. Run for your life or be ready to alight and board a moving vehicle. This may be the only country where a driver will toot the horn at a vehicle in front when stopped at a colour light when the light turns Amber.

90 per cent of sound polluters are drivers of buses and security vehicles. If the Police Department is to position two officers by most bus stops they can charge all the drivers of buses that approach bus stops. Or those who toot horns at colour lights

Sri Lanka is a country that wants to conquer the moon when the fault is by its feet. We have gone to the extent of importing sound meters to detect the sound emitting from horns and a maximum is set at 105 decibels. It is great to set a maximum for sound pollution. Standards have been set for religious institutions. If an industrialist is to set up a factory, sound must be controlled at less than 85 decibels at the perimeter and it’s the same for religious institutions. Now horns go off at 105 decibels. How about musical shows and meetings of political parties? Elections are due soon.

Much hype was created recently on exhaust emission monitoring. We read and heard on media that some expensive equipment has been imported to do spot checks of vehicles for exhaust emission. Are there any readers who have seen the Police or the Environment Authority using these machines? Have the bleaching vehicles, especially state owned and vehicles of the Security Forces/Police reduced?

In the past when there were intelligent officials in Municipalities, Local Authorities, Road Authority and Police Department there were many silence zones. To denote a few – hospitals, courts, schools. I am not sure if the Paradise of Asia has dropped the Silence Zone from Highway Code as very few are seen on our present roads.

Do we need to put the ‘Cart before the Horse or’ the Police Department in using the existing laws in controlling sound pollution?
What we require are not new laws, new machines but to ensure the existing laws are implemented by those who have some ounce of intelligence.

Over to you – Police Department, Environment Authority, Ministers, Municipalities, Local Authorities, Road Development Authority. (The writer is a concerned citizen)

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