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The Importance of Fully-Functional Traffic Lights

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Traffic lights are one of the most important components on the roads. Apart from managing the smooth flow of traffic, the lights also ensure the safety of the vehicles as well as the pedestrians. When drivers follow the rules and obey the traffic lights, accidents are lowered and thereby fewer car insurance claims are made too. However, in many Indian cities and towns, the traffic lights remain non-functional leading to many mishaps and accidents. How can a faulty traffic light affect your journey, especially at night? Let’s find out.

Importance of traffic lights

Why are traffic lights so important? This is simply because these lights allow the traffic to move in the correct direction. They also stop traffic congestion from arising and they help people to stay safe on the roads.

In the absence of physical traffic police officers at intersections, the traffic lights do the job. It is every motorist’s duty to follow the lights. If a vehicle jumps a red light, there can be a chain reaction to that and it can lead to several accidents at different places.

Also, a traffic light directs the cars properly and spreads out the flow of traffic evenly. This prevents congested pockets from cropping up and eventually, makes it easy for everyone to reach their destination on time.

These are some of the main reasons why traffic lights are so essential and also why everyone needs to follow them.

Possible dangers of the non-functional traffic lights

As mentioned above, traffic lights play a very important role. However, when they malfunction, they pose a huge threat because of the following reasons:

● More chance of a collision

The biggest threat is a collision between vehicles. The traffic lights direct traffic in a certain direction. When that happens, traffic from the other direction is stopped so that the vehicles can pass safely. However, when the lights don't function, everyone goes ahead in their own path without bothering about the vehicles coming towards them from the various other directions. This leads to crashes and collisions that leave the vehicles damaged and the people injured, and in some cases turn out to be fatal as well. This is why it is so dangerous to leave a traffic light in a non-functional state for even one day. Sadly, this happens all the time and many people get affected. The condition gets worse at night. Car insurance claims also increase because of this as more cars get into accidents and their owners need to make claims to repair the cars.

● Tremendous chaos on the streets

There is tremendous chaos on the streets, especially at the busy interjections when the traffic lights fail to work. Apart from vehicles trying to manoeuvre their ways out of the situation, there is excessive honking, yelling and people arguing with each other. Then, pedestrians also try to cross the road in the same situation and everything gets more chaotic. To prevent such situations from taking place, the traffic lights must always be in a good and functional state.

● Traffic build-up

When there is chaos and commotion during the interjections, there is a long queue of traffic built up. This results in a lot of delays as even after the lights are restored or the traffic cops show up, clearing the backlog becomes a tedious process. Every day, especially during the rush hours, this happens and people end up wasting a lot of their precious time just stuck in traffic.

● Missed signals at night

Many people aren’t too conversant with the roads, especially if they are new residents in the city. Hence, they rely on traffic signals and follow them as maps. For example, if there is a traffic light in front of a chemist shop and you take a left turn from there to reach home, it works as a great marker. However, if the light is broken and you miss it at night, you will lose your way and find it difficult to reach home. This is another problem that motorists face when the traffic lights break down.

● Threat to pedestrians

There is a huge threat to pedestrians when the traffic lights are non-functional. Usually, there are settings and timeframes when pedestrians are allowed to cross from one side to the other. However, when the lights don't work, the pedestrians are forced to walk across the road with the traffic coming from all sides. This leads to many accidents where a lot of people are left injured every day.

● Threat to other motorists

There is also a great threat to the other motorists when vehicles just randomly move on the roads without following the traffic decorum. This is because everything works in a system and many roads cross each other at various junctures. When a stray vehicle which has crossed a non-functional traffic light at high speed enters a more structured traffic system on a road that is being monitored, mishaps happen. This again leads to vehicular damages and human injuries. A lot of this can be prevented by simply setting up a functional and foolproof traffic lighting system in the city.

The dangers multiply during nighttime. During the day you can still see what’s around you and apply the emergency brakes to avoid a serious collision. However, at night, when it is pitch dark and you can't see a thing, crashing into other vehicles or running over people become more common.

Conclusion

If you notice a broken or non-functional traffic light in your city, report it to the administration at once. A small step from you can go a long way in saving lives and making your surroundings safer. You yourself will remain safe, prevent from getting into accidents and thereby reduce the chance of making a car insurance claim too. So be a responsible driver by not just following the traffic rules, but also by reporting faulty traffic lights as much as you can.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

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