``We are contemplating strong action against hoardings encroaching upon the carriageway and distracting drivers'' Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) SPS Yadav told Express Newsline.

He said that traffic rules did not permit any distractions for a driver's eye in the `zone of acute vision', a three degree cone from the eye to 50 metres away. ``The mind takes cognisance of any distraction in this zone.''

The traffic police will primarily determine whether the department's no objection certificate was obtained for all hoardings. Show cause notices will be issued to agencies which haven't obtained NOCs and procedures initiated for their removal. ``In a way they illuminate the city, but the question is at what cost,'' says Yadav. The trafficpolice have already shot off letters to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and various ad agencies asking for lists of the billboards. The department has already banned the use of flickering lights and blinking brake lights in cars to prevent distraction on the road, Yadav said. The police have been prompted by the 27,000 accidents, 379 of which were fatal, in the metropolis last year.

``Our experience has shown that often drivers do not realise their initial distraction which causes the accident, they only remember the subsequent cause of the accident,'' Yadav said.

However, Additional Municipal Commissioner V Ramani disagrees that the hoardings could distract drivers and cause accidents. ``It's highly unlikely in a city like Mumbai given the number of traffic signals, barring highways, motorists are stopped at the next signal the moment they cross one.'' While he could not rule out small hoardings coming up illegally,