Next year, yellow lights could get a second longer

toi 27.10.2019
The light is green as you approach the crossing. Half a dozen cars are in front of you. You slow down to turn and the light turns yellow. By the time you cross it, it is frowning red. A cop challans you.

Anyone who has been in this situation knows how unfair it is, but a Swedish engineer has fought against it for six years and seems to be winning now.

In 2013, Mats Jarlstrom’s wife was fined $260 when an automated camera caught her jumping a red light in Oregon, USA. She was only 0.12 second late.

Jarlstrom argued that the duration of the yellow light, which was fixed at 3.2 seconds in 1960, is inadequate for present-day traffic. It does not take into account scenarios in which a driver enters an intersection and slows down to turn. Increasing the duration of the yellow light by just over a second would make it much safer, he says.

Jarlstrom proposed a 4.5-second signal, and now the Institute of Transport Engineers, which is an international advisory body with members in 90 countries, has taken note of his recommendation. It is reviewing the existing rules and will submit a ‘Recommended Practices’ report to its board of directors early next year. If Jarlstrom’s recommendations are accepted, traffic signal cycles could change across the world.

For more: The Register

TIME FOR A CHANGE: The duration of the yellow light has remained fixed at 3.2 seconds for the past 60 years

Video shows mass copying in overcrowded Bihar college

Ajay Kumar Pandey & Faryal Rumi TNN

Muzaffarpur/Patna:27.10.2019

Picture an overcrowded college where students have spilled out from the classrooms and are sitting on the corridors, staircases and even the playground, writing their final-year undergraduate exams. Now, add the spectacle of mass copying to it.

That’s what happened at the Ram Lakhan Singh Yadav (RLSY) College, a constituent of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Bihar University, in Bihar’s Bettiah town. The cheating came to light when a video surfaced on Saturday, showing hundreds of students sitting in small groups, at any place they could find, copying answers from each other.

The situation at several other colleges affiliated to the university was the same. Students of Mahesh Prasad Singh Science College as well as a couple of other colleges in Muzaffarpur were also seen sitting in the corridors and staircases owing to the mismanagement.

The RLSY College principal, Rajeshwar Prasad Yadav, said there was no space in the college building so the administration was forced to make them sit on floors. “The college building has the capacity to accommodate 2,500 students at a time. However, the university has allotted around 6,000 students for the examination at our college. How can we make space for so many at such a short notice?” Yadav said.

The principal added that he took up the issue of this massive overcrowding with the district administration, the vicechancellor of the university, local MLAs and other officials, but to no avail.

Yadav, however, denied that unfair means were being used by the students during the general studies examination. “The examinations went off peacefully under the invigilation the college teachers even though we faced space constraint in the college building,” he told TOI.

Full report on www.toi.in

TESTING TIMES

99-year-old yoga teacher passes away

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Coimbatore:27.10.2019

The country on Saturday lost one of its oldest yoga exponents, V Nanammal, on Saturday. She was 99.

The resident of Ganapathy in the city shot to fame after she was conferred with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, last year for dedicating her life to teaching yoga to thousands. She had a huge following on YouTube for videos on yoga and naturopathy. She breathed her last around 12.30pm, her son V Balakrishnan said. “She had such a sound knowledge of her body that she predicted her death 40 days ago after performing my father’s death anniversary rites.

Though she led an active life and followed a healthy lifestyle, Nanammal recently suffered several falls and took months to recover. “One fall left her bedridden. She was having only coconut water and water for the last two weeks. She regained consciousness on Saturday morning and even talked to us,” Balakrishnan added.

When a mom stitched up her mite

Gokul.Rajendran@timesgroup.com

TOI 27.10.2019

The tense moments of “operation Sujith” on Saturday included a poignant scene of his mother showing great composure to stitch a cloth bag herself to help the rescue team lift her son.

The idea of using the bag to lift the boy out came from a Coimbatore team which was looking for help to stitch the cloth. On coming to know about it, Sujith’s distraught mother Kalamary volunteered since she saw that no tailor was around at that hour. “Yes, I stitched the bag for my son,” said Kalamary later.

However, much to the anguish of the mother and others, the bag did not serve its purpose.

“I had no idea there was an abandoned borewell near my house until my son fell into it,” Kalamary told TOI. The borewell was covered by maize plants and no one in the house except Devaraj, the boy’s paternal grandfather, knew about it. The woman also narrated the moments before her son fell into the well. “Sujith was sleeping near me last evening. He woke up and started playing outside our house. I was busy shifting the cattle when my neighbour screamed and came running to the spot. I too rushed there and to my horror saw my son screaming in the depths of the well,” said Kalamary.

Her elder son B Punith Roshan was also witness to the incident. “He fell into it (borewell) when I was reading outside the house,” said Punith. Everyone in the family and the village regretted their act of not closing the borewell properly. “As it was a joint property, we dug a borewell 600ft deep seven years ago. Since there was no yield, we abandoned it and dumped soil in it. The recent rain loosened it leading to the tragedy,” said Devaraj.

MOTHER’S LOVE: Kalamary stitches a bag for Sujith

TN doctors continue to strike, patients affected

Chennai:27.10.2019

Government doctors in Tamil Nadu continued their indefinite strike for the second consecutive day on Saturday demanding a salary hike. There were long queues in outpatient sections in most government hospitals in the morning, but the emergency departments, ICUs and fever wards were fully functional. At least five doctors were on hunger strike. Their health condition remained stable.

On Friday, Health secretary Beela Rajesh talked to the striking doctors. However, the talks failed. Doctors are asking the government to implement the prospective clause of government order 354, which promises time-bound promotion in five, nine,11,12 years of service.“We get their fourth-year salary in our 15th year and their 13th year salary in our 20th year,” said one of the striking doctors Dr A Ramalingam. TNN

Notification from TIMES OF INDIA

Woman falls in bid to avoid pothole, run over

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:27.10.2019

In a tragic incident on Friday night, a woman riding pillion with her husband near Poonamallee died after the man braked to avoid a pothole and she was thrown to the ground. A container truck ran over her, police said. Police identified the woman as Devi, 35, whose husband Ramadoss is a conductor with the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) depot in Kancheepuram.

Ramadoss, 40, and Devi were headed to his parents’ house at Cheyyar in Tiruvannamalai district for Diwali when the accident occurred. At Sadayappa Kalyana Mantapam near Nazarathpet, witnesses later told police, Ramadoss spotted an almost five-ft-wide pothole at the last minute and braked suddenly. A container truck, which was about 20 ft long, was close behind their vehicle and slammed into the twowheeler, police said, quoting witnesses.

While Ramadoss fell to the left, his wife was thrown to the road on to the right and came under the wheels of the container truck. She was killed instantly. Ramadoss was wearing a helmet, police said The residents of Kumananchavadi near Poonamallee planned to travel on the scooter till Kancheepuram and take a bus to Tiruvannamalai, a police officer said. A team of the Poonamallee traffic investigation wing soon arrived at the spot and sent the woman’s body to the government hospital in Chromepet for autopsy.

FATAL RIDE: Devi came under the wheels of a truck when her husband braked suddenly after spotting a pothole near Poonamallee

Woman, 58, falls after bike skids, dies

The injured Ramadoss was admitted to the same hospital. A case was registered and police began a search for the container truck driver who abandoned the vehicle and fled after the accident.

In a similar accident the same night, a 58-year-old woman riding pillion on her husband’s two-wheeler died after the bike skid on the Padi flyover and she was thrown to the ground. She suffered head injuries and was rushed to the Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital where she died. Police identified the victim as Kalyani, a resident of Kolathur.