Govt urged to replace cat eyes with other speed-breakers

PESHAWAR: People from different walks of life have criticised the fixing of iron-made speed-breakers, called cat eyes, on roads as they say structures cause damage to vehicles.

During a chat with this correspondent on Sunday, a rickshaw driver named Muhammad Haneef said that the cat eyes damaged tyres of vehicles.

“The other speed-breakers like the cemented ones or the round ones, whether cemented or iron-made, don’t cause such damage to tyres. But the cat eyes damage the vehicles, particular the tyres,” he complained.

Jan Muhammad Shalmani, a doctor in Shahdhand locality of the provincial capital, said that cat eyes even cause trouble to patients, particularly pregnant women travelling in vehicles since a vehicle stumbles several times while passing on this kind of iron speed-breaker and such a movement can cause trouble for them.

Another driver, Ahmed Khan, had another experience of cat eyes. “Once I was taking women in my rickshaw. When we reached near cat eyes, the women disembarked and walked on foot for a few feet, and then they again sat in my rickshaw after I cross the cat eyes,” he added.

Not only rickshaw drivers, but the motorists also complain that the cat eyes speed-breakers damage the tyres.

Tahir Mehmood, a retired producer from the PTV, complained that the cat eyes have damaged his car’s tyres several times. He said even sometimes a car driver suffers accident while trying to immediately pull up near cat eyes.

“Authorities should fix other speed-breakers, such as the round-shaped ones, to prevent rash driving, but the cat eyes can damage a vehicle’s tyres even if the vehicle slows down on the road,” said Tahir Mehmood, who frequently commutes between Mardan and Peshawar.

He also said that he had visited foreign countries where cat eyes are fixed on road sides so that they reflect lights of cars and thus help prevent accidents.

“But here the cat eyes are installed in abundance in the middle of the roads as speed breakers,” he added.

 The people have demanded the authorities concerned to replace the cat eyes with other kinds of speed breakers that do not cause damage to vehicles and trouble to patients.