Haryana Police advises slow driving during fog

CHANDIGARH - The Haryana Police Tuesday advised motorists to drive slowly and cautiously on national and state highways and other roads across the state due to dense fog in many parts these days.

“Motorists should maintain safe distance from vehicles going ahead and drive along the white line painted on the road and keep the fog lights and indicators continuously switched on,” Director General of Police (DGP) Ranjiv Singh Dalal said in an advisory.

“People should not park their vehicles on the main road and should instead use lay bye-lanes or park away from roads with indicators on,” he added.

He said that in case of vehicles loaded with protruding items or heavy machinery, the drivers should put extra reflector tapes and indicators. He urged the people to preferably use public transport like trains or buses.

National Highways 1, 8, 10, 73, 73-A and several state highways cross Haryana. The national highways, which connect other north Indian states like Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir to Delhi and beyond, remain busy with heavy flow of traffic.

A thick blanket of fog has engulfed most parts of Punjab and Haryana in the last three to four days, severely affecting rail, road and air traffic. The weather office has predicted similar conditions to prevail in the region in the coming days.

The fog enveloped cities like Ambala, Bhiwani, Karnal, Rohtak and Hisar in Haryana and Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar in neighbouring Punjab.

“We expect foggy conditions to continue in the next couple of days. This will be dense during early morning and late evening hours. The fog has brought down visibility level, slowing down traffic. Trains too are running late,” a weather official said.

A head constable of Punjab Police was Monday killed when his Maruti Alto car collided head-on with a private bus near Adampur town, about 20 km from Jalandhar.

In another fog-related accident, three members of a family were killed when their car collided with a truck due to poor visibility on the Hisar-Delhi national highway Sunday evening.