Kerala DGP says No to window curtains, sun film & bull bars on Police vehicles

Any type of modification on your car is now considered illegal. Earlier this year, we had come across several news articles and videos where the police had launched several drives across the country to find out illegally modified vehicles. Several vehicles were seized and fined as part this. In Kerala one of the popular vehicles that was fined by the authorities was the monster Isuzu V-Cross. Kerala Police Chief and Director General of Police Lokanath Behera has issued a circular that asks to remove sun films, windows curtains and bull bars from all the police vehicles.

In the circular he says that it has come to his notice that some police vehicles in the state are still using window curtains, sun films and bull bars which is totally illegal. These accessories or modifications were banned by road transport ministry since 2013 and are completely illegal. Following the ban, Kerala High Court had ordered to remove sun films, bull bars and window curtains from government vehicles.  The circular asks officers to make sure that the vehicle in their station does not have such modifications and if there are any, the circular asks them to remove it.

The circular also says that, they have been stopping and fining several private and commercial vehicles in the past for violating rules and illegal modifications and it does not send the right message if the police vehicle itself is not following the rules and using these banned accessories.

Also read: India-bound new Isuzu V-Cross torture tested (Video)

Pasting a sun film or installing a window curtain is one of the easiest way to keep the temperature inside the car low. These films and curtains were banned after several molestation cases and other crimes were reported inside the car. Most of the time, in which the crime was conducted had heavily tinted windows. This obstructs the vision of anyone who is standing outside the car as he or she cannot see anything that is happening inside.

Bull bars on the other hand look very good and add muscular or butch look to the SUV. Bull bars or any sort of metal bumpers are not meant for road usage. The main purpose of installing a bull bar is to protect vehicle from minor accidents. This however affects the structural integrity of the car very much. Bull bars are generally installed to the chassis of a vehicle. In case of an accident, the whole impact is directly transferred to the chassis and not to the crumble zone of the vehicle.

Crumble zone is very important for any vehicle as it is designed in a way to absorb the impact during an accident to protect the occupants. If a bull bar is installed all the things mentioned above won’t happen and there is a possibility that the occupants might get seriously injured. Another catch here is that after new safety norms have come to place, manufacturers are not only thinking about the occupant safety but, also the pedestrians.

The front end of almost all modern day car is designed to be protect pedestrian from serious injuries in case of an accident. The bull bar fails here and does not give any sort of protection to the pedestrian. All the sensors that are required to trigger the airbags in case of an accident are also placed at the front and Bull bar affects its functioning as well.