Red, amber and green — these are the only true colours to heed if you want to stay safe on the roads. Ignore them at your own peril. BEST driver Jalinder Bhosale did on Friday. His double-decker bus keeled over, squashed a biker, and injured several passengers after he allegedly tried to run a red light. But what if you are driving on the city streets and there are no guiding lights? The situation is not the invention of a fertile imagination, but a stark reality if you are out on Mumbai’s roads at night. The situation gets chaotic after dark when traffic signals are either not working or are put on ‘blinkers’, wherein post-11pm either amber or red colours keep blinking constantly at intersections. This is when motorists throw caution to the wind, leading to accidents.

No light relief
Experts feel that there are teething problems in functioning of traffic signals, as many of them are either switched off or kept on blinkers. There are around 544 traffic signal junctions across Mumbai, including the suburbs. “Every day we receive around 15 complaints about problems with signals, which are attended to immediately,” said a BMC official on condition of anonymity.u00a0